"Finding hope in the future..."

{image via}

"We may feel doubt and despair as we wait in vain for wrongs to be righted, pain to be relieved, and questions to be resolved. Those very winds that buffet us, however, sow seeds of change and growth, and the immense power of the gospel quietly works under the soil of earthly existence, preparing a thousand small seeds of hope and life."

Full article found here: Finding Hope in the Future (April 2014 Ensign)

on the first day of spring : hope

{the pin didn't link back to the original source, darn it}

I discovered a blog recently while glancing through The Power of Everyday Missionaries. It's called A Blog About Love. It's the greatest thing. Anyways, since discovering this blog, I've slowly been making my way through Mara and Danny's old posts. Today, I came across a post about the color yellow and the accompanying Pinterest board dedicated to yellow and I was so inspired... however, I'm not a huge fan of yellow. I am however, quite a fan of teal - it reminds me of the mama (her favorite color) and blues are known to be "serene." Ironically, teal is also the color for ovarian cancer awareness.

So, I decided to do a Pinterest search for "teal." Found way too many great images, but this one above was my favorite. I have found so many great quotes and "word images" on Pinterest. Some are taken with a grain of salt as to authenticity, but whether or not they can be attributed to someone famous or not, many of them have either brought me hope or made me laugh. This is one of them.

Hope is the greatest concept. A Google search for the definition of hope gave me this--

"A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen."

Definition #2: "a feeling of trust."

I especially like definition #2. I've been trying so hard to trust -- not only Heavenly Father, but myself.

to sew

I want to learn how to sew... aside from my "Places : UK" board, my DIY style ideas board is my favorite, but I have yet to make anything on there.

I think part of the reason I like looking for DIY style projects is that I'm trying to figure out exactly what my style is and being "vertically challenged" (haha) makes finding clothes off the rack I actually like very difficult.

To be honest, I will always be a simple girl - I don't like drawing attention to myself and comfort is super important to me, but is it impossible to look cute while achieving those goals? Yet another reason I want to learn how to sew.

Two of my favorites right now are labeled as good beginner projects, but they're both knit, which I've heard is difficult to work with, especially for beginner sewers.

This first one is from the blog Four Square Walls. She took a basic t-shirt pattern and lengthened it into a dress. My overly observant brain really appreciates that the stripes are all aligned. At church a couple of weeks ago I was noticing all these girls in striped skirts and dresses and none of the stripes aligned at the sides... drove me absolutely crazy. ;)

The second one, a tutorial by iCandy Handmade, is also stripes... in a maxi skirt. I know, you're thinking, she liked the first one because the stripes matched up??? BUT, I like this one because the stripes are intentionally off-kilter.

Why do I like these? Part of the reason is that they're comfortable. Part of the reason is that they would make great travel pieces (hello London!) - a lot of the museums/churches require that you wear skirts/dresses when you visit. And, plus it will be summer and I'd be spending a LOT of time on buses and trains. AND, they're work-appropriate for the spring/summer (no shorts allowed).