New Houses!

Eight of these houses were added to my etsy shop tonight! Each one is different - go check it out!

Thanks to all our New Followers!

My original intentions were that whenever a new commenter or follower joined us here at Things with Wings that they would get the acknowledgment that they so richly deserve - whether that means a visit and comment to their blog, or just a comment here thanking them. It's a big deal to us that people would take the time to actually comment. After all, nobody's FORCING them! That little thrill of anticipation I get every time I open my email - it's because just maybe there'll be a new comment here from you!

So since I've been terrible about reciprocating, please know that we cherish and value all of you. We are so excited that so many of you have found us recently. We hope to get around to visiting with all of you in some form or another in the future. But if we don't, please know that we are so thrilled that you are with us!

Giveaway Winner!!!

Thanks to all of you who entered the giveaway over on Living With Lindsay!!! She announced the winner earlier today: Jodi from Backporch Reflections! Congrats Jodi! Your package will go out tomorrow morn-

It's a Beautiful Thing

I posted this on my blog yesterday and thought I would share it here too. I'm trying to post more on this blog...since y'all probably don't know me as well as my mom and sisters! So this is me...this is what I do!

Wow...oh wow.

Yesterday was a powerful day at the Stone. Sunday's are incredible. Something that I love that we have started doing is after we sound check in the morning, we gather in the green room to have a little devo/worship/communion time before the service starts.

On Easter Sunday Todd Agnew led us in a devo/worship time...it was a sweet sweet time preparing our hearts for worship. We then took communion together. Matt went around with the cup to dip our cracker in and he got to me and looked me in the eyes and said, "Emily...this is the greatest thing that has ever happened in your life...this was done for you."
Oh my heart.
The GREATEST thing that has ever happened in my life...JESUS.

So yesterday Matt preached on the recession, suffering and trusting God.
(Isaiah 45:5-7)
HEAVY and GOOD.
You need to go and listen to it. now.
With a message like that and the set list that we did. MAN! Powerful day.
Here are some quotes from the sermon...
"In light of suffering...Sometimes trusting God means that we don't come down from the cross."
"As believers we have got to come to a place where we suffer well."
"Christians never suffer without purpose."
"God will bring us to the doorstep of death so we will turn our eyes to the only one who can raise us from the dead."

After the message we sang "It Is Well With My Soul".
It is humbling to be on stage looking out over the people worshiping. People with their hands up, light in their eyes, people on their knees, faces to the ground...and tears.
During one of the services there was a gal sitting in the front row right in front of me and when we got up to sing the last set I noticed that she was crying...hard. I heard her in my in-ear's. My heart moved as I saw her face and her body shaking from crying.
As we started singing It Is Well, she leaned over with her head down crying harder. Pretty soon people around her starting laying their hands on her back...praying for her...showing her that they were there, that she is loved & being prayed for. Her body continued to shake as she cried harder.
I immediately started praying for her as I sang "When peace like a river attendeth my way...when sorrows like sea billows roll...whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say...it is well...it is well with my soul"
God is glorified.

Another service I saw a mom and daughter sitting together. I don't know their situation but I know that she was hurting. The mom was crying hard and the daughter had her arms around her hugging her and kissing her cheek and wiping her tears away. I saw the mom's lips moving as she sang through her tears, "It is well...with my soul...it is well, it is well with my soul"
God is glorified.

I heard more stories and saw more faces with tears throughout the day and night. God broke through to a lot of people yesterday. What I love is that it doesn't end there. God doesn't work like that, He doesn't just work for a day and be done. He will continue to use the craziness that happened yesterday to stir in hearts and move people to live for Him fully and be conformed to His image.
God is glorified.

During the 7:00 service (I LOVE the 7...they go nuts.) after we sang It Is Well, Aaron went into "Our God Reigns" (not planned...love it!)...it was awesome. Proclaiming that God reigns FOREVER. In light of suffering, He REIGNS! We ended with Blessed Be Your Name. "...my heart will choose to say...Lord blessed be Your name."

We sat down at the end and Aaron and I looked at each other and gave the look of "what in the world just happened." and the nod of "that was crazy". In Aaron's words..."Things just got silly".
It was one of the most powerful days. So humbled and grateful to be in the midst of what God is doing.
It's a beautiful thing.

Reminder *UPDATED*

It's not too late to sign up for the giveaway of this Paper Prayers piece over on Living with Lindsay. She'll announce a winner some time tomorrow, so hurry on over there tonight and enter to win!
***UPDATE: You have until 11:59pm tonight to enter the drawing and the winner will be announced on Tuesday!! So get to it!

Artful Evening Open House

Friday night was our spring open house. It was the place to be! If you didn't make it, I feel a little bit sorry for you. :-)

You missed out on some great prizes: Names were drawn at the end of the evening and winners will be contacted soon, if they haven't been already. You also missed out on the unveiling of the 'stick collection.' What?! You've never heard of the 'stick collection?!' Well, let me introduce you. Here we have 'birds on a stick':
Then there are 'girls on a stick':
There's also the very rare 'fish on a stick', not to be confused with fish sticks. That's something else entirely. You've got to love those lips.
There are also the elusive 'flowers on a stick' and the camera-shy 'fans on a stick', which you'll have to pick out of this cropped picture :

We had so much fun just being together, laughing, visiting with people and eating yummy desserts. (Imagine thick, double chocolate cake, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, bite size cheesecakes in a variety of flavors, and 'double-doozy' chocolate chip cookies for the kids. You'll have to imagine it because I forgot to take a picture of it. Unless you were there, in which case, you made your fantasies a reality.) Here are some more pictures before the party got underway:

Diana and Marissa's fabulous jewelry:
"arial" views:

My new art "Brooches" - still not sure about that word. I've got 8 of them listed in my etsy shop right now, but they're going to be featured in the storque showcase tomorrow, so I don't expect them to last!
Shadley's wonderful new work was also there - reflecting the hope she has in Jesus as she awaits news regarding the baby boy they are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia:



The "Hope" piece was done on an old window and probably looks pretty good right about now, hanging in its new home in Laura's family room!

Shadley thinks we're rubbing off on her. I say, bring on the black and white checks, baby, bring it on! (I had to steal these pics from Shadley's site because I took the other pictures before she'd set up! Go check out her website, and contact her if there's anything you're interested in buying!)

Thanks to all of you who came! A great time was had by all!

To-morrow, To-morrow, I Love ya To-morrow...

You're Only a Day A-way!

Tomorrow's the big day! Scroll down to see the 4 prizes for our Artful Evening Open House!!!

Malatya

I had the privilege to be a small part of a project that a couple of my friends from my church in Austin put together.
They filmed a documentary called "Malatya", on the first martyrs of the Turkish church. Three men were killed because they proclaimed that Jesus was Lord of lords and King of kings. They tell their story and they interview their wives and friends. It is a very powerful and moving story.
I was asked to sing and record a version of the song "I Will Sing" by Rich Mullins. My friend Jimmy and I recorded it together and it is played at the beginning of the film.
This documentary is now in the hands of Voice of the Martyrs, which is a world-wide known organization that raises awareness of the persecuted church. They have come alongside them and are distributing this documentary all over the world! AWESOME!
God is amazing!
If you want to check out the trailer and learn more about this documentary go to their website: www.malatyafilm.org
Here are a couple of pictures from recording...
Mr. Andy Melvin working his magic...The view from my room...SO fun!

"Brooch" is Such a Fancy Word...

...but "pin" doesn't capture how cool these puppies turned out! So whatever you want to call them, they're new in my etsy shop. I listed 8 of them today and they'd look fabulous on a big cloth bag or a fitted spring jacket. And hey, they'd make a great mother's day gift! They are one-of-a-kind and you can find out more about them over at the Paper Prayers shop. I sure do hope that all you local yokels are planning on coming to our open house on Friday, because I'll have a whole slew of "brooches" to "chooses" from!

Fabulous News!

Wowee!!!

It's been a busy weekend around here - lots of preparations are underway for our fabulous open house THIS FRIDAY and we've received two pieces of really good news -

Good news #1:

we are being featured today over on Living with Lindsay!

You REALLY might want to go check out Lindsay's site. Especially all of you non-locals who are not planning on hopping on a plane just to come to our open house. You know, those of you who were a little bummed to find out we were GIVING AWAY such fabulous things at said open house and you weren't going to be able to come and put your name in the DRAWING...Hint, Hint. I'm just sayin'.

Good News #2:

We are being featured on Kari and Kijsa's blog today!

Their post made us squeal and gush and do all kinds of things that we normally reserve for babies and half-price scrapbook paper sales at our favorite craft store. So go check their blog out too - they are sisters who do home decorating and crafty projects and have lots of creative tips. They have an awesome etsy site and a great sense of humor....hmmm....reminds me of some other sisters I know....

We are sending out thanks to all these special gals for all their kind words!

Etsy Update!

I just added a bunch to my Etsy....check it. Have a great day! I can now say that after taking a day to mourn the loss of 5 (yes, 5) pieces that I left out in the rain over the weekend. Today is going to be a better day, I just know it!

Giveaway #4!!!

Here's a sneak peek at the 4th and final giveaway for our art open house. This beautiful necklace and earrings set was made by the mother/daughter team of Girls Intuition jewelry. They are super talented and so much fun to be around. Diana and Marissa actually came up with the idea of making and marketing their jewelry as a way for them to work together to offset college tuition costs, hence the name in"tuition". So clever, those two. We're excited to have them with us again for this show! Someone is going to be the very lucky new owner of this wearable art.

GIVEAWAY #3!!!!!!!!!

This will be our third giveaway at our art open house on April 24th. It's getting harder and harder to resist, isn't it??? This is a pretty good prize (with a $47 value, folks!). And it will go to one lucky winner. Remember, you can only enter your name for the drawings if you're at the open house. Scroll down to read more info about our exciting evening coming up and to see the first 2 giveaways. We've got one more prize coming up, so check back!

Hello Dollie!

There will be some new Creative Works. Dollies for sale at our spring open house. This little punky-dunk is hanging out on the couch watching me finish up some of her friends.

Happy Easter!!!

Hope everyone had a great day - enjoying friends and family - and most importantly, celebrating the Risen King! Where would I be without my Jesus?!

Here are some goodies I made my family for today -

Wow! Another one! Giveaway #2!

Here's another great give-away prize - (by Connie) What woman doesn't dance in her kitchen at some time or another? C'mon, admit it! I was just doing a wild little hip thing the other day - don't ask me why - but it actually felt good on my aching lower back - and Don wasn't home to see it! Probably a good thing! Anyway, getting back to the painting, this cute little number could be yours, as a reminder to have fun. And yes, it is a dancing spoon, all right, an original Creative Works. design.

Open House Giveaways! Giveaway #1!

If you come to our open house on April 24, we will enter your name in a drawing for several awesome prizes! This "welcome" sign is by me (Jill) of Paper Prayers. It would look great hanging in your entryway, or above a door. Look over to the left for more information about this fabulous event. And don't forget to tell all your friends!

Stay tuned - we will be adding pictures of more prizes soon!

Be Wise...

"To be wise is to KNOW and DO the will of God."

In The Message remix bible, God says this (Isaiah 55):

"I don't think the way you think. The way you work isn't the way I work. For as the sky soars high above the earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is way beyond the way you think. Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don't go back until they've watered the earth, doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, so will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They'll do the work I sent them to do, they'll complete the assignment I gave them. So you'll go out in joy, you'll be led into a whole and complete life."

Good stuff.

{-Laura}

Hey all you Locals!

I want to give all you local people a head's up that we are excitedly getting ready for a spring open house! It's going to be so much fun! We are going to serve you some fabulous desserts and we're going to give away lots of prizes! We are in the process of putting together some really great give-aways that you could win, but only if you come and enter! So be on the lookout for pictures that we will be posting here soon of all the fabulous prizes!

Mother/daughter Diana and Marissa will be joining us with their Girls' Intuition Jewelry and Shadley will be showing off her wonderful artwork. As usual, the three of us yahoo's will be there - Laura's Green Girl Designs, Jill's Paper Prayers and Connie's Creative Works. The great thing about all of our work is that it is fun, affordable and made with love!!!

You won't want to miss this fun night - so put Friday, April 24 on your calendar. You can drop in anytime between 4 and 9 pm. Or heck, you can hang out all evening and visit! We'll be sending out postcard invitations soon and if you need directions email us at paperprayers@hotmail.com.


Check back often for prize updates!

Happiness is Like a Butterfly...

One of the better ideas I've ever had is that when making things to sell, to make several of the same idea, just using different colors. People love it when they've got options, and inevitably when you get a group of friends shopping together and one finds something they really love, another friend will want one too. Plus it saves me from having to come up with quite so many new ideas all at once!
Here are some close-ups of the first: