Author / Bethe

by Bethe

Rejoice

I’ve been designing scripture posters for myself for years. I have a framed copy of all of the verses I need to make it through my workday with my sanity intact framed next to my computer, so that whatever challenges I might face during the day, I’ve got a scripture handy to quote over and over until I can regain my sanity. 
Yesterday during my morning Bible study I stumbled across this verse, and it just made me HAPPY. Don’t you love it when the Bible throws something like this at you, that you can just wrap your arms around and hug close to your chest and let out a huge sigh of relief and just… rest?
Life is nutty right now. Then again, it always seems that way, doesn’t it? Through a lot of unknowns right now, as Mr. Right and I take a big leap of faith and try a new adventure on for size, I want to remain THANKFUL for all of the ways God has provided for me in the past. He has shown up before and I am certain he will show up again.
Do you keep a list? If not, you should. I keep a running list of all the ways God has shown up, answered my prayers, knocked my socks off with blessings or snuck something in unexpectedly that could have only come from him. Seeing that list makes those giant leaps of faith, those urgent prayers during a crisis, those dark moments when nothing will do except for a MIRACLE, more manageable. Survivable.
So let’s rejoice together in ALL of the GOOD THINGS our Lord has given us and our households. 
PS–To get a copy of your very own Ombre Scripture Art, visit Texas Lovely online. Until the end of August I’m offering buy-one-get-one-free on this piece so that you can keep one for yourself and give one to a friend who might need a little reminder to rejoice.
by Bethe

In case you were wondering…

It took me 11 episodes of 30 Rock to piece my nephew Jack’s baby quilt on Saturday. That’s a new record! I’m bursting with excitement to show you and may not be able to wait until I’m able to get it in the hands of his sweet mama (my sister-in-law Michelle) before posting a sneak preview. I chose a design that I’ve had swimming around in my head for months, and I must say it turned out so cute I squealed, and then danced around while Mr. Right oohed and aaahed over it like a good husband of a quilter.  I may just make another one with some of the leftover fabric and stick it in my shop for a baby gift. You know, since I promised I’d never sell a quilt in there, and every good woman changes her mind.

I still have to quilt and bind it, but luckily I’m only on Season 2 Episode 12 of 30 Rock, so there’s plenty of time to finish it.

I got asked if I was pregnant on Friday. Again. Three times in one day. By one woman and two men. For the record, I’m not. And people should stop asking. And I am going to have to burn that shirt (along with this one and this one and this one), which I admit was a bit loose, but I bought it from the regular section of LOFT.
On Saturday I started tracking my calorie intake/outtake on the myfitnesspal app. I’m hoping the accountability of keeping a food journal will help me with item #2 on my list. I’m on Day 4, which practically makes me an expert. (Who’s taking bets that I’ve forgotten about this by Thursday?) PS–I’ve lost two pounds. It may have been water weight, but I’m celebrating nonetheless.
We watched the greatest movie this weekend – Capote. It’s rated R, but if you have a husband who will tell you when to close your eyes (an opening murder scene, and about two minutes toward the very end), it’s really more of a light PG-13. It’s now in my Top 10 list of favorite movies. (note to self – create list of my other top 9 favorite movies.)




Does anybody else LOVE LOVE Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition? Mr. Right and I want to adopt Chris Powell into our family.  We love positive people, and we hear he’s a fan of CrossFit like us. 



My favorite restaurant in all of DFW is closing in a few weeks. To be replaced with a TACO SHOP. As if Texas doesn’t have enough Mexican food restaurants already. I’m not sure who was more sad, Mr. Right and I when we found out on our date Friday night, or the manager who knows us because we go so much (and send all of our friends there). Rest in peace, Cowboy Chow in Roanoke. I will miss your watermelon tea and fry bread dipped in honey and black bean mash. 
My prayer right now is Psalm 107:7 – “He led them by a straight way…” Life seems to be swirling all around us lately, with our own plans turned upside down and many of our closest loved ones going through some pretty big trials. 
“When I said, ‘My foot is slipping, your love, O Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.’” Psalm 94:18-19

I am so glad you follow my little blog. Bless you!
by Bethe

New job

We are happy to announce that Mr. Right has taken a new job – in a few weeks he will start working as a real estate agent in Fort Worth.







It does not mean that we are quitting ministry. 
There are some crazy statistics out there about how many people who graduate from seminary are out of ministry within five years. I think it’s an unfair statistic. Because a lot of churches can’t afford to support their ministers full time. There are church plants that routinely use bivocational ministers – they work to support their family but their main mission is ministry. In fact, some people say that this is the future of church ministry.

This will be us for now. Mr. Right will have a “regular job” albeit a very flexible one so that he can support our family and still do ministry. We now consider ourselves bivocational.

The kind of ministry we like to do isn’t very clean. Mr. Right likes to work with internationals. The down and out. The poorest of the poor. The people that society tends to write off. You know, the kind who don’t have any money to support a minister. And there aren’t a ton of jobs out there for that.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t do it. We’re already voluntarily running an ESL ministry at our church, working with refugees from around the world. And Mr. Right volunteers with our Spanish-speaking ministry. And he is uniquely gifted at sharing Jesus with random people he meets in lines at grocery stores. The funny thing is, he’s never pushy, rarely brings it up – but people just see him and immediately open up and tell him their life stories. At the pharmacy. And the gym. Just about anywhere he goes.

So he will continue to do ministry. And he will continue to finish school. He’s scheduled to graduate with a Masters of Divinity (a 98-hour degree) in 2013.

It does not mean we will never again work at a church. 

It does not mean that we won’t someday end up living on the mission field, finding ourselves as the outsiders who need someone to teach us the language and the culture. 
But for right now, we’re going to do that for others, in the name of Jesus. We’ll just being doing it for free.

It does not mean we’re leaving our church.
In fact, we plan on staying for a very long time. Our church is our home, we love the people there, and we feel like we have great opportunities to minister there. It just means that instead of working through every service, Mr. Right will get to sit next to me, worship with me, maybe even ride together to church (something we have never done since we’ve gotten married). It means that we’re in a good position to find some new ministries to do together. As volunteers.


We need your prayers.
Change is exciting but also scary, especially for two people who are planners to a fault. We need prayers as Mr. Right changes careers and builds a new business. We really feel like this is what God wants, and we assure you that this is something that we have prayed over for quite some time. But navigating through change and finding new roles to serve in can be challenging. And I need your prayers because as always I battle against fear of the unknown – pray that God will continue to give me big faith and the wisdom to know how best to support Mr. Right through this transition.

We need your friendship.
We are thankful for friends who love us no matter what our jobs are, who trust us to follow the Lord’s leading for our family. Mr. Right will need your encouragement (and your referrals… wink, wink) as he starts a business from scratch.

We need rest.
If you go to church with us, you may not see us for a few weeks. Mr. Right hasn’t gotten to attend a single worship service in ten months. He needs to hide in the back of a sea of unknown faces and just worship. And so we have plans to visit the church where our brother-in-law leads worship. The church that Mr. Right’s parents helped plant. We may take an out of town trip that doesn’t involve us driving back at midnight Saturday night so Mr. Right can make it to work the next morning.

But we will be back, with batteries recharged and hearts excited for a new chapter.

by Bethe

My Summer Bucket List Update

It’s time for a little Summer Bucket List update (if you’re new, here’s 2011). We have been busy bees over in the Right house, crossing things off our list and dreaming up new and unexpected adventures. We’ve done pretty well, considering summer brought some unexpected new items to the bucket list (like starting a new business, building a patio, and a few other things that deserve their own blog posts). I’m choosing to think of this list as pure fun, and if I don’t hit all the items, then I’m not going to stress one iota. In fact, it’s my goal to add a little slacker-ness to my summer, which is a bit out of my nature. More than anything, this list helps us come up with ideas for fun date nights so we avoid the “What do you want to do?” “I don’t know, what do you want to do?” rut of marriage. Mr. Right and I want to be FUN.



Here’s a list of what we’ve done, with just a few weeks to go before the end of summer.

Eat dinner on a patio

Dinner at the ultimate patio… Joe T. Garcia’s


The at-home version – a leisurely dinner on our back
patio one night while Mr. Right was working late –
just me, my ice tea, and The Bachelorette on my laptop. Bliss.



Have a picnic on Trinity Trail

Trinity Trail is like a little oasis in the middle of the city. If you want 
to get some fresh air, have a CHEAP date night, and enjoy a 
little romance, I highly recommend it.

We even brought Harley the Wonder Schnoodle along.

Learn to bake a pie


I learned to make peach cobbler (from fresh peaches no less!). My
definition of “pie” is something that you’d bring to Easter, Thanksgiving
or Christmas dinner. So cobbler definitely falls into the pie category.
I loved my peach cobbler so much I made it over. And over. And over.



Take a moonlit walk with Mr. Right on the beach

Marco Island, Florida


Wear shorts and heels

I actually did this quite often. Each time I felt kind of silly
but also kind of awesome. 


Ride my bike


I may be one of the few people who has a bike with cup holders.
Don’t be jealous.
Mr. Right and Harley came along for the bike ride
(they go every single morning).

Plan a secret date for Mr. Right

I surprised him with tickets to Concert in the Gardens in Fort Worth. It was
one of the last cool weekends in June before the Heat Wave of 2012 hit.


Hold my new nephew

Luke James, born June 11, 2012


Man, he’s a cute kid.

Go to a Rangers Game


We had a big debate before this game – is it trashy to wear workout clothes 
(running shorts and a t-shirt) to a Rangers game? Do you get a free pass 
if it’s 104 degrees? We chose to go with the all-wick-away fabrics. 
And we chose right.


Rangers lost. But I got a lemon chill. So it was a good night.



Kiss Mr. Right while watching fireworks

Bucket list fail. I have no pics because I was too busy a-smoochin’. And excited because we hosted 35 friends for a fireworks watching party. But trust me – we crossed this one off the list, and have a few witnesses who will vouch for us.


Learn to sew something new

Want one of your own? 



Finish my husband’s quilt


This was a quilt top we bought at an antique mall for $10 – the steal of the century.
The whole thing was hand-pieced, which took hundreds of hours. Mr. Right
picked out the quilt backing (his old sheet from college) and we bound it with
the shirt he bought for his first job at a Young Life camp in Colorado.
The whole thing has a ton of sentimental value.


This is Mr. Right modeling the finished product.

Host a dinner party

We hosted about 27 dinner parties, including one for our visiting preacher 
(that was pretty cool), dinner for about 35 people on July 4th, dinner 
for 15 girls at a bachelorette party, and a bunch with 6-8 guests. 
Each one was a blast – one of the highlights of our summer.


Dip my toes in the ocean



Marry off my dear friend Katie

Photo Source for both photos: www.mcgowanimages.com
Confession: I’m showing this one because it shows off my calf muscles, which I’ve never had before. Finally, those 800 million bazillion box jumps from crossfit have finally paid off. Oh, and it was a LOVELY wedding.


Do something spontaneous

We did a lot of spontaneous movie/sushi dates. Especially after we 
found out our local movie theater offers $5 Tuesdays. Score.


Get a mentor

Done – but this doesn’t really lend itself to picture-taking.

Cook with vegetables from our garden

Man, those are some GIANT tomatoes, eh?


Get a pedicure




Eat a sno-cone




Make one of the recipes from my Pinterest board

This is not exactly “cooking” but I “arranged” based off my Pinterest board. 
Judge says – good enough.


Eat a candlelit dinner at home
If you don’t take a picture, does it still count? We’ve had a few candlelight dinners including one where Mr. Right surprised me with one (along with a love note). That one was my favorite, and I was way too googly-eyed to remember to take a picture.

Finish writing Chapter 1 of my book

Done – but again, not really photo-worthy

Visit a state park

And here’s what’s left:

Take a photography class
Pre-plan all my meals for one week (confession: I have zero desire to do this, so it’s probably not going to happen)

Go to a museum
Go to a festival
Dance with Mr. Right in the kitchen
Take a road trip

Get a new dog (This will one is probably on hold for a little while)

Have a fish fry (with chicken strips for me, since I don’t eat fish)


Two weeks to go – we’ll see how many more I can cross off between now and then.

by Bethe

First Sale

I did it! I sold my first pillow. Two, actually, to one of my sweet relatives in Oklahoma. Today on my lunch break I dropped her package off at the post office and just like that, I’m in business.
I wish you could have seen how excited I was when I found out I’d made my first sale. I squealed, and smiled a big smile and basically skipped over to Mr. Right to tell him my good news. If you ever happen to purchase one of my pillows, just know that you’ll be making this girl’s day, and there will definitely be squeals in your honor.
Here’s the pillow Aunt Ginger bought:
Ruffle Pillow
I love these because they’re neutral enough to go with just about anything, and the ruffles create such a gorgeous, girlie texture without being too loud. I will quickly replace these now that they’re sold out, along with a two-toned variation that I think is going to be really chic. 
I also made two pillows out of Ethan Allen fabric samples – I love these pillows because they’re quilted (right now I’m not selling full quilts because the cost is so high that I’d have to charge a ridiculous price to cover my costs – which I’m just not ready to do). So if you’re in the market for a Texas Lovely quilt, then these are a great start – not only are they one-of-a-kind, shabby chic, but the striped pillow has some really fabulous texture combinations – velvet and fuzzy and slick and ribbed fabrics. It’s just… interesting. I like pops of the unexpected in my house.
This one reminds me of the beach…
14×14 Quilted Pillow

This one has some really gorgeous fabrics, with each triangle is individually quilted.

14×14 Quilted Pillow
Thanks to everyone who has helped spread the word about my little shop (and this little blog) – soon I’ll be doing a give-away to say a proper thank you.
Until then, have a lovely day.
by Bethe

The longest day EVER

Yesterday I worked a full, action-packed day, then had a full extra day to go shopping and hang out and sew. How?

Well, that’s what happens when your day starts at 2:00 a.m. and goes until 10:00 p.m. And that’s why I don’t have a job in morning radio.

Okay, full disclosure – there’s several other reasons why I don’t have a job in morning radio. Like, nobody has asked me. And my voice isn’t that great. But I think the number one reason will always be that I don’t want to set my alarm for 1:55 a.m. ever again.

We hosted the area’s most popular news/talk morning show at the hospital on Friday, and it was one of the most fun experiences of my PR career. I work with a lot of reporters and producers, and this team was probably the greatest I’ve ever worked with. Everybody was professional, but laid-back, ON TIME, no drama, and delivered much more than they promised. It was a really fantastic experience.

It’s also very strange to have a conversation with someone who has an iconic voice that you’ve heard on the radio for years – it’s kind of like their lips are moving but the sound doesn’t match up.
After putting in a full 8-hour day, I went home and crashed for two glorious hours, then woke up and it was only 1:00, which left me feeling like I’d somehow snagged an extra 3-day weekend for myself. What a treat.
And what did I do with my spare time? Sew pillows of course – you can check out the new additions in my shop. I also picked up the rest of the fabric so I can finally start my nephew Jack Henry’s baby quilt. I’m down to just two months until his arrival so it’s time to get scootin’. His mama (my sister-in-law) picked out a couple fabrics she loved and I’m supplementing – can’t wait to share it with you. I’ve changed my mind a dozen times on the pattern, but in the end went with a slight variation of what I had wanted to do all along. I can’t wait to start cutting.
by Bethe

Etsy Shop NOW OPEN

I’m happy to announce that my little etsy shop is officially open for business. It’s super small and I’m still working on some new products, but I’m doing a very soft launch to work out the kinks.
First off – the name & logo:
Link to Texas Lovely on Etsy

I chose Texas Lovely because it’s just pretty, and made me smile, and is, well, lovely. And I hope that I’m a lovely person. Who makes lovely pillows, and quilts, and things that make me smile. If you’d like something to make you smile, let me know and I’ll be happy to custom create something for you.

Right now I’m working on some quilted pillows which should be in the shop very soon, made from scraps of Ethan Allen fabrics. They’re so cute, I may snag them for my own couch.

In the meantime, head on over to my shop and see if anything interests you.

by Bethe

Wedding Weekend

Oh how I wish every weekend included self-tanner, air-brush makeup applied by a professional, a hair stylist and two new fancy dresses to twirl around in.

But alas, if that was my everyday then it wouldn’t be so special. And this weekend was definitely special, as I helped marry off one of my closest friends, had a blast playing dress up, got to hang out with some of my favorite people, and I ate… and ate… and ate.
Congrats Katie & Sean!
PS–Upon looking at these pictures, let me assure you that I looked much tanner in person. For me. Which is really still quite pale. But more of an off-white-pale.
by Bethe

How we cut the cable and lived to tell about it

Back in January Mr. Right and I had a serious talk about how much money we were wasting on cable. Like, our bill stupid high and we really didn’t even watch much TV.

The first time we talked about it, I was pretty against it. I have a beautiful big screen TV purchased pre-marriage and the thought of leaving it blank, with no TV news, no live events, no Bachelor Mondays was just too much for me.

And then Mr. Right dangled the “with all the money we save we could get a cleaning lady” card. And I was hooked.

Cable, my friend… I don’t miss you at all.

We figured out that we could save about by getting rid of cable and movie rentals and leaving just internet. For that same amount we could afford a cleaning lady twice a month.

And what a gift that has been for us. I’ve got a demanding job and that requires me to work a lot of nights and weekends. Mr. Right juggles a job as a minister, working a full day on Sundays, with a full load as a graduate student. Together we teach ESL and volunteer quite a bit at church. Plus I’m launching a small business. Time is precious for us, and it has been such a blessing to have one thing crossed off my list completely. I realize it’s a total luxury and in the future we may not always be able to swing it, but in this season of life, it has been so very thankful.

So how do we watch TV? We actually think we have a cooler set-up now than we did before.

1. We got a digital antenna so we can watch high-def local channels live. There’s no DVR, no fast-forwarding through commercials… but after the initial investment (less than $100) our TV is free. We like free. Free makes the commercials worth it.

2. We got a blue-ray player that hooks up to our wifi. Through that player we can stream Netflix (movies and entire seasons of TV shows) and Hulu Plus. Hulu allows us to watch current shows as if they were on DVR – I can literally watch any show, the entire season – without ever setting my DVR. Cost of the blue ray player was less than $100. This is especially handy during these summer months filled with re-runs… I’ve been discovering new shows I’ve never seen before and watching those straight through.

3. The blue-ray player also allows us to play Pandora over our TV, which is a fun new toy we never expected. Think, dance parties in the living room. It also has an Amazon app where we can rent movies much cheaper than we ever could rent through AT&T’s payperview.

4. We also use our laptops to watch tv/movies in other rooms. This is what I do while I’m in my sewing studio.

And guess what? I think we’re better off now than we were before. Not to mention my floors are now a lot cleaner.

And that, my friends, is how I got a cleaning lady without spending any extra money, and in the process got a much better tv-viewing experience and regained a tiny bit of my sanity.

by Bethe

How I make that money, honey

Today I’m doing a link up party with Lindsay, which I discovered by way of Lia Joy, who happens to be my in my Sunday School class at church.  And since I’ve never really told you what I do, here’s my chance.

I am the marketing and public relations director for a local hospital. This means I figured out a way to get paid for doing things that I think are crazy fun. Don’t tell my boss. 🙂 Here’s what I do:

1. Advertising, including billboards, print ads, tv and radio commercials, direct mail, brochures/collateral, t-shirts, people on street corners holding cardboard signs. Okay, not really the last one – that’s a pet peeve of mine. But there is no better feeling than driving down the street and seeing your billboard on the side of the highway and knowing that nobody else will ever realize how much work went into it. Or the smell of a freshly printed mail piece that I’ve slaved over for a month.

2. Web stuff – I’ve created several websites from scratch, and I also do all of the Facebooking/blogging/Pinteresting/tweeting/YouTubeing on behalf of the hospital. Who would have ever thought I’d figure out a way to get paid to play on Pinterest? Then again, who ever thought when I was hired 8+ years ago that there would BE a Pinterest? Or, for that matter, Facebook?

3. Special events – everything from an employee party in an operating room to a community party of 500+ off campus. I’ve done grand openings and anniversary parties and surprise parties and more health seminars that I could ever count.

4. Media relations – I’m the girl that reporters call when they want to do a story about the hospital, which means I’ve worked Christmas Eve, New Year’s morning, nights, weekends, you name it. I’ve worked on stories about West Nile and heart attacks and hair cuts for charity and baby making during ice storms. The baby making one made me blush, but you better believe it was such a good story it got picked up nationally.

5. Community relations – I get to serve on boards for non-profits, work on committees, participate in chamber life, go to events, and do service projects in the community. I’ve played Mrs. Santa Claus for kids and worked the finish line at a marathon and painted a house, all on behalf of my hospital. It’s one of the very best parts of my job (besides Pinterest), and I consider myself so blessed to get to help others as part of my job.

Don’t for a minute think that my job is glamorous. For every black tie gala I’ve planned, there have been five events where I had to schlep boxes of chocolate truffles to my hot car in 105 degree heat (true story) or set up events in the pouring down rain looking like a drowned rat while everyone else looks dignified. The last TV commercial I shot had me leaving my house at 4:30 a.m. – next week I’m doing a live radio broadcast that means I have to be at work at 3:00 a.m. And there have been days when I spent three hours standing over an old, squeaky paper cutter, or addressing and stamping postcards while watching Dancing with the Stars. Glamorous, not so much. But fun? Absolutely.

I love my job, I really do. Sometimes it exhausts me, especially when I have to work several weekends in a row. One year I went to 80 community events OUTSIDE of work (that was before I met Mr. Right). Not to mention the amount of stress I carry around as I struggle to leave work at the office but end up mentally taking it home with me and mulling over problems when I should be sleeping.

But when I get really worn out, I remember the times my husband, or dad, or mother-in-law, or I have been a patient in my hospital, and the fantastic care we received, and how the staff there provided me with comfort and reassurance when I was so very scared, and I remember why I chose to work in a hospital in the first place. Because I don’t sell something that’s meaningless or frivolous. I get to work on a team that saves lives, and my little contribution may provide comfort or peace during the scariest moment in someone’s year.

Plus, let’s face it. My cafeteria sells the most amazing peach cobbler known to man. That’s reason enough to stay another eight years.

What about you? Join the link up party and leave me a comment with a link to your post – I’d love to see what the rest of you do!