God Knew When He Put Me Here: Crafts!

Hey y'all!

I could list a hundred reasons that God has placed me in this internship right off the top of my head, but this is one of my favorites. I love crafts. Everyone who knows me to any degree knows that. And the great thing is that God especially knows that! He created my mind. He knows how it works. He knows which areas He made me more talented (and which areas are better left to other people...) I also recently heard an incredible quote (I don't know who said it, sorry) that said something like "It's God that gives you the desire to do that which pleases Him." Beautiful quote, right? He has created me to love crafting and baking specifically and in turn, when I use those talents, it pleases the Lord. *shivers*

Anyway, my amazing internship has given me the opportunity to do both of these things so far (crafting and baking). The first opportunity started with our normal Tuesday Jhi meetings. We were working on planning the theme for our summer program called Jhi Summer Nights. One of the other interns came up with the idea of "Despicable Me, Glorious God". I could not have been more excited. Despicable Me is one of my all time favorite kids movies! I could quote it for days. "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!" and "It was your cousins' idea! ... Whaaaaa???" being two of my favorites.

Different people were assigned to be in charge of different aspects of the program such as games, ice cream truck (so exciting, I know!), and tech. This was one of my first meetings with the staff so I assumed that I would just be helping other people with their jobs. To my surprise, I was assigned to be in charge of the decor for the program! My mind immediately began to race. I also have to take a moment to point out that my mom has always taught me to dream big on projects so I started to do just that. I dreamt BIG! I had no idea how much time, effort, and tears (yes, tears. Sometimes breakdowns are necessary) would go into this project.

My first thought: I want a minion version of me!

My second thought: EVERYONE needs a minion version of themselves!! (Note: I work on the Jhi staff with eight other people. EIGHT. That means nine minions, okay? Okay, glad that got cleared up.)

Never did the thought come into my head, "Oh Rachel, honey. You are biting off WAY more than you can chew. Why don't we think about this realistically and keep brainstorming." Nope. Another thing that everyone knows about me. I'm stubborn. I don't change my brilliant ideas easily.

So here began the project! I brainstormed with one of my brilliant, craft-minded sisters and we decided on a list of what I would need to create the project. I then visited my FAVORITE store: Hobby Lobby and went nuts. I bought paint, paint brushes, and NINE foam poster boards. I started by making a list (I LOVE lists) of characteristics to portray for each staff member and then did my first sketch on a random piece of paper. I thought, "Hmm, that's pretty cute. No way is that going to look very good full size though." I then sketched it out and went about painting it. Let me just tell you how excited I was when I finished! It was adorable. (Yes, I'm bragging. Just wait.)

This is my minion pre-cut out. Yes, it's a bow, side bangs, and a tutu :)

Then I had to make eight others which, like I said before, included tons of time, effort, and tears. Thankfully my precious mother was there to calm me down as I worked everyday after I got off work until I went to bed on those stupid... I mean...cute...minions. She helped me to cut them out which was a huge help and saved a lot of my sanity.

I then had the wonderful (read: dreadful, embarrassing, humbling) experience of going to Home Depot for the more functional part of the project. I approached an older man that worked there thinking that he would pity me and just go ahead and help me. He was great. We collected some wood (no idea the dimensions), 2 foam insulation boards (massive), a 2x4 (see, I'm not too helpless!), paint, and some angle things? I finally got back to the church, painted those dang boards, put the letters on, added the minions and was set to go. (Note: we still haven't figured out how to make the wooden stands we were going to create to work. Fail. Oh well, God provides!)

Here is the finished product! I didn't get any good pictures (really, this one is terrible), but I'll work on that later. Praise the Lord that I finished this massive product!

ALSO, I haven't forgotten the baking part. We had a staff BBQ and I volunteered to make a dessert. This thing was heavenly. It's a Chocolate Nutella Strawberry Cake (recipe courtesy of The Pioneer Woman). You're welcome! (Note: Next time I make it, and there WILL be a next time, I'll make it as a trifle. The strawberries were so heavy on the whipped cream that it eventually fell. :( No worries, it still tasted delicious!)