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Say hello to the beautiful ladies gracing our sidebar this month!

Life. Style. Sauce. That's what you'll find at Aunie Sauce. It's my little take on being a 20-something swanky girl... in my own mind at least!


Blog // Facebook // Twitter
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I started this blog as a way to reach out to my fellow PCOS Cysters.
It soon turned into so much more! I have met some amazing people!
I just started taking this blogging thing seriously in 2012, and I am so glad I finally made the change!

Blog // Facebook // Twitter // Bloglovin
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Hello there lovely readers! I'm Bronwyn & I blog over at Our Beautiful Blessings. Over at my blog, I write about life. The life of a newlywed. The life of a Christian. The life of a college student. I love to write and I write in order to remember. I want to remember this time as a newlywed and all that God is doing in my life. It's an incredible journey, and I hope you'll hop on over to my blog and spend a little time with me


Blog // Shop // facebook // Twitter // Bloglovin // Hellocotton

Count your blessings

Growing up Cassie always loved to write. Notes, letters & in her journal. Now she has a passion for writing. She's loves Jesus. She's a wife to her high school crush & a mother to two beautiful little boys. She dreams big, loves entirely and lives life to the fullest. She believes laughter is the best medicine and embracing life is something she does with pleasure. Her blog is Live.Laugh.L0ve and she creates "pretties" in her handmade shop called ccy designs. You can see more post by Cassie here.

Oh if there is one thing I try to help people with is when they start naming every bad thing that is going on in their life. Trust me when I say I know life isn't always perfect, there is tons of stress and sometimes you just straight up get down because of it all. But when this happens I start counting my blessings.

One. We have food. Yep, we are able to eat during the day. That is a blessing because some people don't even get that.

Two. I have two beautiful healthy children. Huge blessing, seeing as some women have extremely unhealthy kids or some have lost their kids. I am beyond thankful for that.

Three. I have a husband who loves me for who I am. Again, another blessing because some women's husbands try to change them.

Four. I have a roof of my head. Some people don't.

Five. I have a few close friends. I prefer a few close friends over a bunch of "friends." I love the friends I do have and am so thankful they are apart of my life.

Six. My parents are still alive. Very thankful for that.

Seven. We have a working vehicle. We may only have one car right now but I am thankful that we have even that.

Eight. Being able to take pictures. Because some people don't get to take pictures and capture those moments that we do.

Nine. Being alive. Getting to live is a blessing.

Ten. Being able to see & touch & smell & taste. Because some can't do that.

That is just then things off the top of my head that I am blessed with. Some are small and some are big. But each blessing counts and when I am down it helps tremendously to start listing everything I am blessed with in my life.

So tell me one thing you are blessed with today.

It's The Simple Things: Cooling Off.

Drawn towards a creative life at a very young age and being an only child, I was always found drawing, imagining, or creating in one form or another. Now I am the desigNERD behind Dig Deep Design Studio. I'm all about designing, writing, photographing and living a fruitful, fulfilled life. No other ambition than to find balance in myself and live an artful existence. You can find Diggers blog here & her shop here. Want to read more from Digger? You can do that here. 


As a little girl, every summer my mom would take me up to the County Court House, and we would stand in a long line while we waited for our assigned irrigation time slot. I LOVED that day. To me, that's when summer began. And it was always so disheartening when we got the crummy midnight time slots. But, when we were lucky enough to get the mid-day and early afternoon ones. THAT was a good summer.

I loved everything about it. I loved walking around the streets turning the water down the appropriate ditches. I loved unclogging blocked water ways with my shovel. I loved trespassing in our neighbors yards so we could turn their water gates in our direction. But the best part was racing back home and trying to beat the water so you could watch it come down the ditch at the back of the yard.We never had a swimming pool and we lived too "in town" to have watering holes, but once a week, irrigation water would pool in the back yard and we could run through it and splash our hearts out. Of course we were responsible for making sure the water made it to the front yard so it would water the grass, but I loved feeling the cool water pool around my ankles while I worked. I loved getting so hot that you'd just turn around and flop into the stream you were creating. 

It was something so simple, so utterly day-to-day, that I completely forgot about how great it was and how incredible it felt. So this weekend, Bruiser asked me what I use to do when it was hot out. And you know, that was the first thing that popped into my head. 

So in honor of my childhood irrigating days, we loaded the boys up in the car and headed for the coolest, non-cemented in puddle of water I knew: the lake.

Not too bad for not being able to plug it in huh? They loved it and are already asking when we can go back. Not soon enough, boys. Not soon enough.

Picking up the pieces

Growing up Cassie always loved to write. Notes, letters & in her journal. Now she has a passion for writing. She's loves Jesus. She's a wife to her high school crush & a mother to two beautiful little boys. She dreams big, loves entirely and lives life to the fullest. She believes laughter is the best medicine and embracing life is something she does with pleasure. Her blog is Live.Laugh.L0ve and she creates "pretties" in her handmade shop called ccy designs. You can see more post by Cassie here.

Everyone at some point or another in their life is going to break. Maybe more than once. It might be over the loss of a loved one. The loss of a pet. Financial reasons. Or it may be a bunch of little things that you have been carrying around on your shoulder to the point where the weight of it all just hits you one night.

{Via}

Like the other night when I was sitting in bed reading. You want to know what finally made me break. My boys playing and getting out of bed at almost midnight. I was exhausted and I kept having to get onto them and they kept not listening and all at once I felt defeated. Then everything I had been holding onto - the weight of it all crushed me. 

I sobbed into a pillow for nearly 30 minutes. I thought I was never going to stop. I cried and I prayed. I prayed so hard that I was screaming in my head - screaming the prayer, begging God. I'm not sure I've ever done that before. And when the tears finally started to slow down. When I could control my breathing. When I could stop everything running through my head. 

I heard it and it's something I'll never forget. It's one of Gods whispers. 

You don't have to pick up the pieces alone.

and he was right. Of course he was right, he's God. I had been trying to take care of it all. To deal with everything. To manage everything along with stress and I was trying to be okay with it all. When I should have been giving it to him. He reminded me that even when I'm broken, I don't have to pick up the pieces alone. And neither do you. 

{Via}

Be a kid

Growing up Cassie always loved to write. Notes, letters & in her journal. Now she has a passion for writing. She's loves Jesus. She's a wife to her high school crush & a mother to two beautiful little boys. She dreams big, loves entirely and lives life to the fullest. She believes laughter is the best medicine and embracing life is something she does with pleasure. Her blog is Live.Laugh.L0ve and she creates "pretties" in her handmade shop called ccy designs. You can see more post by Cassie here.


I originally posted this on my blog but I wanted to share it on here as well. 


One thing I love about having kids is they have taught me how to be a kid again. While I have always been young at heart. The stress of money, parenting, being a wife, yada yada... can make it to where the kid in you flees right out of you. Even if you don't have children right now, you can still take the time to be a kid. You may be wondering what I mean by that. I don't mean throw temper tantrums, throw food or pick on the dog. I mean see the world through their eyes. 

Have faith as they do. They love God so much. Without restrictions. Without question. Their faith is real and yet they are just children. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. -- Matthew 18:3 

Find beauty in the small things. Find something fascinating about something ordinary as they do.

You can learn a lot from kids. Just watch them. Watch how they take in the world around them. How they enjoy the smallest of things. you can do that. Take the time to push aside the busy, chaotic, stressful part of life and be a kid, even if it's just for an hour. In order to see the world as they do, you have to be on their level. Sit on the grass, lay on the driveway & then examine the world around you. You will be surprised at what you find from their level.

getting past the fear of me

skye is a total type-a, list making maniac who has discovered a place to unleash her creativity through blogging and creating. she makes custom upcycled artwork at her dining room table for her shop, thumbprint designs. she shares her stories, inspirational thoughts and love for handmade and connecting on her blog, neathering our fest. 

one of the biggest and scariest obstacles i have overcome in the last few months hasn't been a fear of roaches (actually haven't overcome that one yet) or being petrified of losing my father after the tragic loss of my mom or worrying from month to month how the bills are going to be paid. the hardest wall i have been hitting over and over again is the fear of me. the fear of listening to my heart. the fear of declaring who i am. the fear of recognizing talent within myself.  the fear of being criticized or rejected for that talent. the fear of simply being me. to begin with, i still haven't shared with most "in real life" people that i have a blog or that i am a "blogger". is it just me or does it seem those who don't blog look at you kind of funny when you do tell them you have a blog? and starting a blog is a really scary thing too. when i first started this one i was inspired by layla at the lettered cottage. and i still love her blog and read every post she or her husband kevin writes. but i was gauging my success against her success. um. what the heck was i thinking? blogs are not overnight success stories (for the most part anyway). i thought i would write a post and people would flock to my newborn blog and love it into a bubble of success. i was wrong. after a pretty rocky few months of figuring out that followers do not mean blog happiness i realized that i had a handful of loyal followers and i was, and still am, very happy with that. then i started realizing that i wasn't really happy with my job. i wasn't sure where this realization would take me but i knew i had to find something to make me happy outside of work since i am literally so miserable here. i also knew one of the goals in my three year plan was to open an etsy shop. so i found something that i, praise the Lord, love to do and did it. then i realized that if i wanted to sell anything, i had to actually show them to people and talk about them. i then reverted to my second grade self. what if they laugh at it. what if they call it stupid. what if someone says that they have seen much better ones somewhere else. what if. what if. what if. so i started small and shared my signs with people i was very close to. basically people that i knew wouldn't say "aww that looks awesome!" even if it did look like a monkey's behind but that would be truly honest with me. and by george - they liked them. they wanted one. they told their friends. the first one i made was for my sister-in-law's baby shower. people commented on it even without knowing that i made it. meaning that yes, i listened in and kept my ears perked for any mention of it and yes i am paranoid and was worried that if they knew i made it they would be polite and say it was nice and then roll their eyes when they turned away from me. i started turning my "what if's" into "so what's". i used what little bit of courage i gained from the feedback on that sign to actually make some more and open up a shop. i took a deep breath in front of my computer one night and clicked the "publish" button on etsy to list my first item. and then i checked out for a few days. i published a blog on here telling you guys about the shop and the new items and then i let it go. i didn't tried really hard not to worry about what anyone else said. so what if they laugh at it. so what if they call it stupid. so what if someone says that they have seen much better ones somewhere else. so what. so what. so what. about a week later i logged back in to etsy. i knew from the experience i had with starting my blog that i would not be flooded with purchases immediately. i didn't expect for anyone to have even seen my shop by that time. so you can probably imagine the thrill i got when i saw that someone had added one of my signs to their favorites! someone who did not know me and who really liked what i made enough to add it to their favorites! yes. yes! YES! this was a big exciting deal for me! and then someone else added my shop to their favorites. and then the world stopped when i got an order. an actual order for a sign. someone liked my creations so much that they ordered one as a gift for someone they loved. i was so proud. and yet - i was still not proud enough or confident enough to share this really exciting event with my "in real life" family and friends. or, in 21st century terms: facebook. that little booger called fear continued his dance in the back of my mind. and then it occurred to me... if you can't be proud of your own work how can you expect others to be proud of it? so i stomped on that voice in my head and squashed him. i updated my facbook status with something like "woo hoo! i just got my first etsy order! my inner cheerleader is saying 'go you!'" and then prayed that people wouldn't think i was bragging or showing off and they would know i was genuinely excited and also looking for positive support. God does funny things. i was totally shocked at the reaction i got on facebook! it was exactly what i needed to hear from people that i knew would be supportive if i just gave them a chance. it gave me another little push in the right direction. i'm still nowhere near over the fear that still throws his occasional party in the back of my mind but i have come a long way since i first started. i have to mention that it has also been totally invaluable to have my husband's total support in this as well. he has helped me dig through piles of wood on the side of the road and sweated over a circular saw to help me cut bigger chunks of wood down to a workable size. he tells people about my signs that i would have never thought to mention it to. he even wrote in my anniversary card that he was excited to be helping me in this adventure. he is my biggest supporter. (i think it helps that i have quit trying to paint every piece of furniture we own white and install new flooring on my own.) anyways - all of that was to say this. don't be afraid to get past the fear. if fear is what is keeping you from being the best, most amazing you that you can ever possibly be then you have to find a way to get past it. find a group of close friends you can confide in that will support you and be honest with you. learn, learn, learn as much as possible about what you want to do. don't be afraid to mess up and start over. find what you love to do and don't be afraid to let it make you happy!

Faith

Sarah is a Christian wife and mom of two girls.  I love life and am learning how to give thanks in all things.  I enjoy blogging as a way to share with others the blessings and joys in life that are out there if we just look around! You can find her blog here and shop here. Read more posts from Sarah here.
When thinking about what to write for this week, I honestly had a hard time.  If you've come to know me and learn my story a bit, you know that our daily life is fully of many challenges while we raise an 8 year old girl and her almost-six year old sister who happens to be special needs and medically fragile.  I am so caught up in the grind that I often neglect the "me" time.  Yes, I devote time to blogging and getting words out there, but I am talking about the solitary "me" time.  The time to connect with God.
When I set aside the business and chaos of my life, and I think about my relationship with God, that is truly where I find my inspiration.  It comes in different forms, but it all leads to Him.  Aside from Scripture itself, I think my main source of inspiration comes from worship music.
When I'm in the car I will either have the radio tuned to our local Christian station or I will have a Christian music cd playing.  I honestly couldn't tell you what is current in mainstream music these days.  Not a clue.  None.  But I love Christian music.  It's what we hear in church and it's what I listen to in my daily life.  I often come home from church when a particular song has struck me and I find it on youtube and play it non-stop.  My Pandora station is all-Christian.  Every now and then something secular sneaks in and I skip over it.


My life journey is one that is moving towards God and I find that in the music I listen to, there are often times where a word or a line will really resonate with me.  I feel like I can connect with Him with this music playing.  So, if you're wondering who I listen to, you'll find me most often listening to Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman {who just played at our church a couple weeks ago!}, Steve Fee, Jesus Culture, Hillsong, and even music from our church - Martin Chalk.
I am in the worship choir at church.  We sing with the worship band every now and then {maybe once every month or so and for some special occasions}.  When I am worshiping at church, particularly when it's with the choir, I feel so overwhelmingly inspired.  Inspired to be a better child of God.  Inspired to be closer to God.  Inspired to live my life for Him and not worry needlessly about the things of this world that I have no control over.

Easter 2011 - Seacoast worship choir singing along with the worship band

Worship music calms my spirit.  It lifts me up.  It frees me from the bondage of the challenges I may be facing that day.
It connects me to God.
As I journey on this road, I will continue to look for the things around me that inspire me to draw nearer to Him.