Sunday Sermon - February 13

"Dusty Bibles lead to dirty lives."
       - Church sign on Crater Rd., Petersburg, VA

more valentines wishes

I just can't get enough of the teal/red combo! It just goes so well together! I loved it so much that when Dynamo built me my gorgeous cabinet/bookcase for my craft room a while back, I painted it black and red and then accented it with these gorgeous teal drawer pulls from Anthropologie!

Valentine's Day is so wonderful! It's only a few days away! Have you gotten your sweetie a gift yet?

The gold foil looking stuff is actually a doily! I picked up a whole bunch of them a while back at the thrift store.
So...here's another card...

On both of these cards, I used the new rub-ons from Stampin' Up! for Valentine's Day! Super cute!

And...I love the letter stickers! They are fun to mix and match types and fonts.

Happy weekend!

rushing swift creek

This is from our Sunday ride at the Park. Can you believe the boys crossed it last week? Turn up your volume for the full effect!

Swift Creek Super Bowl Sunday Ride from Rachel Chieppa on Vimeo.

Mountain Bike Monday - Super Sunday Spin

While most of you were preparing for your Super Bowl festivities, we were getting our weekly ride in at the Park. The water at the dam was still rushing...

And rushing...

It was a really nice day for a ride. We were looking for a route that didn't involve crossing the creek. It's no big deal in the summertime, but in the winter it can be pretty chilly! Earlier in the week, we found a very helpful guy through the Cycling Central VA site who had mapped out a 26 mile loop throughout the park (mostly fireroads). He shared this route with us, so we planned to go exploring. Many thanks to Brian for the route.

We explored lots of new territory in the park. It is so amazing how much we still haven't discovered at the park. There were more sights including this cool camping area (not that I camp remember)...

bridges...

more rocks... this one was so awesome! I love the crack down the middle! It was beautiful!

more animals...

The trails we explored on the opposite side of the park from where we normally ride were quite utilized by these four-legged creatures. There was evidence everywhere (if you know what I mean). It was like dodging land mines!

...and, more hills!

We stopped at the top of one of the many hills and encountered this gentleman, who asked us if we were looking for the "flat trails." We all looked at each other and back at him implying "not really." We thanked him for his help and got back to our route.

It was a very nice ride. MBM, Dynamo, and I made a day of exploring and really got a workout.

By the end of the day, the cyclometer read...

30.19 miles! My longest off-road ride ever! Of course, Dynamo rode a little more after I stopped. But, I was super proud. Spot and I had a good ride!

I think I finally got my energy drink mix right...now, I've got to work on the food intake!

Hope your Super Bowl Sunday was great!

Sunday Sermon - let your light shine

This lesson is courtesy of Sermons for Kids.

Scripture: Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16


"One of my favorite comic strips is Peanuts and one of my favorite characters in that strip is Snoopy. If you have read very many Peanuts cartoons, you have probably seen one which shows Snoopy sitting on top of his dog house with a typewriter. He is trying to write a great story, but he seldom gets past the opening sentence which is, "It was a dark and stormy night."

Do you remember any "dark and stormy nights" in your life? I remember a lot of them! Nights when the electricity went off and the lights went out. That is not a very good feeling, is it? You can't see anything in the house and it is hard to find your way around without bumping into the furniture. That is why I always have some other form of light handy in case of an emergency. Perhaps it is a candle or an oil lamp, but those can be dangerous and could cause a fire. You can also use a flashlight, but they don't put out quite enough light. What you really need is a battery-powered camping lantern. They produce a bright light that makes it easy to see well enough to move safely around the house.

A dark and stormy night can be very scary and it is good to be prepared for such times, but there are some people who live every day of their life in darkness. They are lost and alone with no light to show the way. Can you imagine how scary that must be? We know what they need. They need Jesus, but they don't know him, so how can they find the way?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." We can show others the way to Jesus by letting our light shine. If they see that we have the light, they will want it too. It is just like it says in the song we all know, "This Little Light of Mine"

1. "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!"
2. "Hide it under a bushel? No, I'm gonna let it shine."

We know the song, now what we need to do is do what Jesus said. We need to let our light shine to show others the way.

Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to be the Light of the World. Help us to let his light shine through us so that others will put their faith and trust in him. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen."

here for you...promise

Sometimes you need to send a card just to let your friend know you're thinking of them. I hate having to send "cheering up" cards because that means someone is sad. I never want to think of anyone being sad.

So, this is for a dear friend. I do hope that she doesn't read this until she gets it in the mail. That can be a problem with blogging your creations...often, they make the web before they reach their final destination.

Anyways...for this card I wanted the perfect vintage image, so I started looking through my stack of old books. This one jumped out at me as being just right! I envisioned the little speech bubble above the girl's head as being the perfect place to add the sentiment. It reminded me of the days we used to sit and talk to each other about stuff! Now, my friend is a little far away and we can't talk like that anymore. But, hopefully she knows I'm here anytime!

pretty blue purse

A good friend asked if I could make her a purse using blues. So, this is what I came up with...

I really love the blues and greens in this fabric. Of course I had to make it different, so here's the other side...

I really like a two-sided purse. It is different (you definitely won't find another one like it) and gives you different options for different outfits. You just carry the side you want people to see facing outwards.

I was very pleased with how this purse turned out. It is the Frenchy Bag from Amy Butler. I absolutely LOVE her patterns. They are so user friendly and Rachel proof!

I sometimes alter the patterns just slightly to fit my taste, but overall it is the same purse. After you use the pattern a few times, you learn what works for you and what doesn't.

I do hope my friend likes it! But, if not...that's ok...I'll make another one!

Have a great Thursday!