Saturday, December 25, 2010

Peanut Butter Balls Dipped in Chocolate

Around Christmas I always crave chocolate covered goodies.  I love dipping strawberries, bananas, and cherries.  This year I wanted to add something more to a gift that I was creating for a family white elephant present.  Fruit doesn't do well traveling for over a week, the person who I was giving the gift to is allergic to wheat and we didn't have peanuts so I tried something new.  Here they are.

Ingredients:


2 scoops Peanut Butter
1/2 scoop butter
and Powdered sugar

Mix butter and peanut butter
Add powdered sugar until the mixture is thick.
Prepare Almond Bark or another form of meltable chocolate
Place in the freezer for 10 – 15 minutes
Roll mixture into balls and dip in chocolate mixture using a fork, your fingers, a spoon or you can use a toothpick.
Allow to cool on wax paper. You can add sprinkles or chocolate chips to decorate.






You can also dip pretzels, fruit or peanuts into the chocolate dip.  If you get pretzel sticks you can mix them and peanuts to create clusters.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Second Round of Christian Rock Bands


Alright guys, people are requesting music so here is your second round of 13 Christian Rock Bands.  There is no order.  I know that this list could be altered and made better.  I replaced bands and thought of more throughout the process but I had to stop.  I am curious to know what you favorites are.  I do apologize for the lack of older bands.  I didn't really get into the scene until 2005 so I missed a lot of the greats.

My first list - My favorites

1. August Burns Red

2. As I Lay Dying

5. Relient K - arguably pop punk but they are on this list anyway. : )

6. FireFlight

7.Number One Gun

8.Zao




















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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Simple Christmas Gift Idea

Bath Salt is a last minute gift idea that you still have time to make before Christmas.  This gift looks great, smells great and from what I have read seems to be the cure all gift.

You will need…
Epsom Salt
Fragrance (essential oils)
Food coloring
And
Some empty jars that can be sealed (I used both a jelly canning jar and some containers from the dollar store with rubber bands plastic bags and ribbon to cover the band)

1. You can either poor the whole bag of salt into a bowl or poor just the amount you need in. I placed salt in the final containers then poured it into a bowl so that I would make just the amount I needed.


2. Mix the salt and food coloring together keep adding coloring until it is the color you want. I used neon food coloring because I knew that I wanted purple and didn’t already have the standard colors. If you have the standard colors, the box will have the number of drops to create the desired color listed.


I made frosting using this green and it was awesome!

3. Add fragrance – If you use oils the mixture will be fairly dry but if you use a liquid fragrance it will be a bit sloppy.  The sloppy slushiness it not a problem but will cause the next  step to take longer.
4. Lay out in a baking pan to dry. I let oils set for about an hour. You just want it to be a similar consistency to what it was before you added the color and fragrance
5. Measure into containers.
6. Tie a ribbon around the top and place in a gift basket or wrap.


To create the layered affect just poor salt into two bowls, adding fragrance to both but color to one.  Then poor into container alternating colors. 


Merry Christmas!

God I pray that we could all have a wonderful holiday 
and time sharing gifts with family and friends 
but I also ask that you would 
help us to remember Jesus and his birth in this busy time.

AMEN!

Friday, December 17, 2010

Christmas Prayer

God, I would like to pray for those that don’t know you and don’t know about Jesus. 
I pray that they could find you in this holiday season.
I especially pray for those who don’t have a family, friends or a home. 
I pray that they would feel safe and warm.
Please help people leave their selfishness behind, if even for a day.
I pray for Chino and Daniella as well as Crazy Horse (maybe I will share these stories).
Please keep those on the streets safe. 
I pray for the Rapid City Mission and similar organizations.
Please help the Soup Kitchen find volunteers for this holiday season.
Help those of us who have much to share with others who have less.
I pray for people living with and dying from disease.
I pray for my pastors (Todd, JeriAnn, Brad, Diane, Layne, Jennifer and their families).
I also lift up the prayers of others in this holiday season.
(Please add a comment for a prayer that you have…)
AMEN!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

My Apartment Building


You guys said that you wanted more art, so here is some of my photography.
Here are thirteen photographs of the apartment building I live in and the surrounding area.  I called this series The Laramie Project.  My husband and I are really enjoying being downtown.  The Connor Apartments used to be The Connor Hotel, a fancy hotel and brothel.  When it was converted to apartments the architects decided to have fun with the residents.  Our apartment has circular archways and our friends have 3 bathrooms and one bedroom.  It is great fun...

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 12.
 13.
1.









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Christmas Star or Snowflake Ornament

A lot of you are asking for art, being an artist this is an enjoyable task...so here you go...  This ornament is simple to create, requires only a few supplies and is low cost. I created each star differently as I made up the design. This process is simple and there is a lot of room for creativity (even error).  




Supplies

Wire about 25 – 30 inches long, 24 gage if possible, 22 will work but is more difficult (you can purchase this at a hardware store).
5 long skinny beads of a similar length. I used paper beads that I spray-painted gold (I have a tutorial for making those as well).
10 seed or glass beads of your choice.
Round-tip pliers are optional.  Round-tip do work better than needle nose priers because they manipulate the wire much smoother.




Tuesday, December 14, 2010

GRACE


This poster is hard for me because I chose to use topics that I am against and raise fairly strong emotional responses.  For example my biological father was murdered by a member of the KKK and in high school my dad's (adoptive/ real) car was bombed in our driveway.  The poster is telling the viewer that "we are called to forgive everyone," even the people that have done this things to me. 

I know that the call to action for this poster is not nearly as as easy to do as it is to say.  I know that forgiveness is a difficult everyday decision that we can actively make.

God, please help us to forgive 
those who sin against us.  
Lead us not into temptation 
but deliver us from evil...
Amen!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Don't Blame the Dark for Being Dark

I am not saying that people shouldn't or wont be held responsible for their actions.  There are consequences; however, we should not be blaming the victim.  

This is a call to Christians to reach out to others and show the gospel of love instead of preaching and expecting people to understand.

Check out more posters at Grace is a Bit Queer.

Friday, December 10, 2010

My Top 13 Christian Rock Bands




”thursday-13″




I have actually seen all of these bands except the last two live.  This list is based on my favorites.  There are many other lists and I was forced to leave many of my favorites off of this list.  I will create at least one more rock one and probably miscellaneous genre list (ska, Celtic punk, and hip-hop)

1. Showbread

2. Demon Hunter

3. The Showdown

4. mewithoutYou

5. Haste the Day

6. Disciple

7. Project 86

8. Underoath

9. The Devil Wears Prada

10. Chevelle

11. Thousand Foot Krutch

12. Norma Jean

13. Oh Sleeper

Who is on your top 13 list?  How would you change mine?  Let me know below.






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Thursday, December 9, 2010

What if?


I have a couple classes where people bash Christians on a daily basis.  It gets annoying because most of these people don't know much about Christianity.  It is also frustrating because our society no longer sees the many great projects that Christians do.  They associate Christian with bigot and ignorant, not graceful and loving.  

What if things were different? 

Check out my website to see some ways that we can make things differenet.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Hey Fred, God Loves Gays

Read more about this poster and others at my site titles "Grace is a Bit Queer."

If Jesus loved the murderer on the cross next to him, I would be willing to bet that he loves gays as well.  God loves the glutton and the lustful (both of which are addressed in the Bible more than homosexuality.  There is not a person on this earth that has fallen short of the glory of God and there is not a person that God doesn't or can't love. 

It is hard to grasp but God even loves Fred Phelps.
Even though I do believe his hate makes God soooooo Sad.

It is easy to think "God doesn't like that person, or this person because...."  I would argue that God may not like someone's actions, but there is no way that I would argue or could be convinced that there is a person whom God doesn't love.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Separation of Chuch and State

I do believe that the church and its members should be helping people and fighting against social injustices towards others. But there should still be a separation of church and state.

Take a look at my website for more of my thoughts…
Blog post on marriage
Blog post on health care (link coming soon)

Where do you think that this line should be? What should the role of the church and government be in relationship to social justice?