Many of you guys, you know who I am. You know me tonight as maybe your daughter, maybe as your sister. You might know me tonight as your leader and you might know me tonight as your friend. But I wanna ask you tonight that whatever you may know about me that you will put it aside. And tonight I ask you to give me your heart. I believe that God has placed a message on my heart and I wanna share my own heart with you tonight. So I ask that you'll give me an exchange. Put aside what you know about me and give me your heart. Today we live in a generation without faith and without hope. What I mean by that is you can look all around the world and you can see and hear all about violence. You can hear about war. You can hear about disease that is spreading. You can hear about all these negative things and you can turn on the news and you'll be very hard pressed to find anything positive in the news, am I right? It is so hard to turn on the news and see something positive happening because all you hear is this bad thing is happening. This negative thing is happening.  These people are passing away and perishing because of this disease that is spreading all over the continent of Africa and we are so used to hearing bad news. And because of that our generation is filled without faith and without hope. And we as Christians, as the people of God, we ourselves have taken to that same kind of a mindset. And it's something that's happened within the church today because we watch the news, we hear all those bad things and the problem is is that we have allowed ourselves to believe the things that we hear. We've allowed ourselves to be misled by the negativity. We have allowed ourselves to be influenced by the negative things that are happening around us and we have been persuaded by it. We've been persuaded by the negative things. And tonight I want to share with you a little bit of my heart. I wanna share with you from a story tonight about Moses. Yes, our generation, we have heard many negative things. Yes, we know that things are going on around us. There are people who are dying every single day from horrible things. You hear these days right now about people who are dying by the thousands and by the millions by terrorist groups who are going around just ready to kill people. So sure some of you guys have heard the group ISIS.  And it's very easy to be discouraged by information like this. Our generation is on information overload and all of this information is negative information. And it's easy to ask the question as Christians, well where is God in all of this? And I wanna ask you this question tonight in return. The question really is, is where are we? Because it's really easy to look around and be persuaded by the negative things that are happening around us. And we as Christians, we have begun to believe that same negativity because we look at the situation we say, oh I wish I could help, but really there's not a whole lot that I can do. So what do we do instead? We complain, we talk about it, we think about it, we murmur about it, and we do all these things but we don't do anything about it. Because the church today has become crippled by the negativity that is happening around us. Instead of seeing beyond the situation and allowing God to use us to make a difference, we believe the lie that maybe we can't do it, that maybe we're just not good enough, that you know what, I'm too weak. But the Bible says that instead of criticizing our sixth society, that we should do good to change the bad that we see. If we see negativity, then the Bible says that we should do good to be opposite of that. The Bible says that we are to be the light of the world. Why is that? We're to be the light of the world because we know one thing about light, that where there is the presence of light, that darkness has no hiding place. And you and I, it is our job to bring the light. We know that Jesus Christ is the light.  And if he's the light of the world and he is with us, then we must shine his light in order to expel and expose every single darkness that is around us. But we are young people here. And it's so easy to see all of the negativity and say, you know what, there's nothing I can do about it. I wanna help people. I see that my friends every single day, I talk with them and their situation is a terrible situation. Their family members are sick, they're dying.  And you wish that you could help them but you think, you know what, there's not a whole lot that I can do for them because I myself, I'm going through some stuff. I myself, I'm weak. I have weaknesses. I have problems. You know, I, I'm just not good enough. But I wanna share with you a story and a scripture tonight from the book of Exodus in chapter three. And it's the story of Moses.  If you can open with me, we're gonna take our reading from Exodus chapter three starting in verse one. Okay, so it's gonna be from verse one and we're gonna read to verse 12. One day, Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire in the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn't burn up. This is amazing, Moses said to himself. Why isn't that bush burning up? I must go see it. When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush. Moses, Moses, here I am, Moses replied. Do not come any closer, the Lord warned.   When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord told him, I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is the land flowing with milk and honey, the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Parasites, Hivites and the Jebusites now live. Look, the cry of the people of Israel has reached me and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abused them. Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt. But Moses protested to God, who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt? God answered, I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain. Interesting, when I read that story, you hear that God is telling them, I hear the cry.  Before I go into that, I wanna give you a little bit of a backstory into Moses' life because he has a very interesting life. Now Moses, he was supposed to die when he was born because he was living during a time where Pharaoh had commanded that all of the Hebrew boys under the age of two were to be killed because Pharaoh did not want anybody to raise up as a deliverer because he had heard about some prophecies. But Moses' life was miraculously saved during that time. And instead of growing up in a Hebrew family, he found himself in the Egyptian palace. Now Moses grew up in the Egyptian palace. He was supposed to die, but his life was miraculously spared. He grew up in the Egyptian palace as a Hebrew person.  By the time he became a young adult, he began to have an identity crisis because he realized that he didn't belong. He realized that I am a Hebrew amongst all of these Egyptians and he saw that his people were now slaves. He saw that they were using brick and mortar to make all of these things and they were harshly treated by the Egyptians. And he began to feel like I don't belong here in the palace. So he decides that he's gonna leave the palace and he goes and he tries to make friends with the Hebrews. He thinks, okay, I'm going to abandon the Egyptians. Surely my people will accept me. And he goes and he tries to make friends with the Hebrew people, but they don't want anything to do with him. They don't want to accept him. They say, get out of my face. He even went as far as to kill an Egyptian soldier, maybe perhaps in a way to win their own affection. But it didn't work because now the Hebrews called him a murderer. So he was supposed to die at birth. He was a Hebrew and outcast living with Egyptians. Then he tries to go and live with all the Hebrew people and become a Hebrew, but they too rejected him and called him a murderer. So what does he do? He flees the land and he runs away to Midian. This is a nearby town, a nearby place where he decides, I'm just gonna run away from everything and everyone because I don't belong. My life would have been better off if I just would have died with all of the rest of those Hebrew boys. My life would have been way better off because these people, nobody will accept me. I'm rejected by men. I'm rejected now by the Egyptians. I don't belong there. I'm rejected by the Hebrew people. They don't want anything to do with me. And now they see me as a murderer as well. So what did he do? He ran away. And now Moses finds himself in Midian, just trying to live his life.  Not gonna do anything. Just stay here, live in peace. And suddenly he sees a burning bush and it catches his attention. Suddenly he finds himself having a real legitimate encounter with God Almighty. And what is God saying to him? He said, Moses, I hear the cry. You ran away from Egypt, but I hear the cry of my people. I see how harshly the Egyptians are treating my people. And like I was talking about earlier, it is so easy to see the negative things going on around us and to say, where is God in all of this?  But he's looking for somebody that he can send. And I wanna ask you tonight, can God send you? Interesting thing about Moses is when God confronted him and God met him and he showed himself to him in the most miraculous of ways, as a burning bush and the bush was not consumed.   Moses had a serious and legitimate encounter with God. But the interesting thing is what Moses said to God. He said, who am I? Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? I left his house, I ran away from the Pharaoh. I said, I don't want to have anything to do with you. He said, who am I to lead the people of Israel? They don't want anything to do with me either. They've rejected me and now they call me a murderer. How can I lead these people? It's better if I just stay here. But the interesting thing is that God did not say, you know what, Moses? You're right. I feel sorry for you. The people rejected you. You left Egypt. You're here. It's better if you just stay here and live in peace.  But the interesting thing is that that's not what God said. He said, Moses, I hear the cry of my people. I know what is happening to them. I can see what is going on. They're enslaved and they are in bondage and I need you to go and save them. I need you to go and rescue them. Me? Who me? God, you've got to be kidding me. I am too weak. I have weaknesses. I have flaws, God. Can't you see that? I'm a murderer. I have a past. I've been rejected by men. These people want nothing to do with me, but I want to tell you tonight that man's rejection will promote God's direction in your life. I want to tell you tonight, like Moses, maybe you feel like you're weak. You've paid attention to your flaws. You've believed the lie of the enemy that says you're not good enough to be used by God. Moses thought the same thing. He even went as far to tell God in Moses chapter four. I'm gonna read it for you in verse 10. Moses said, but Moses pleaded with God, oh Lord, I am not very good with my words. I never have been and I'm not now. Even though you have spoken to me, I get tongue tied and my words get tangled. He was really trying to convince God that he wasn't good enough. He was trying really hard to convince God that he was too weak.  He already knows all of your weaknesses. He knows where you came from. He knows your past.   Because I want to tell you tonight that a murderer from yesterday can be today's deliverer. Whatever your past may be, God will not use your past to determine what you can do for him, what you were able to do for him. You might have weaknesses, yes. You might make mistakes, yes, we all do. But I want to tell you tonight that God is not looking for a perfect person. It would be impossible because there is no perfect person. If God was looking for a person, then there would be no one, and I mean no one, that God could use. So who does he have? He has you and I. And the thing is, is that we have become so used to the lie of the enemy that now we've been saved, we've been living our life, but we're living fear of our past. It's so easy to look back into yesterday and say I made so many mistakes. I can't go to these people. They know who I am. They know me by my past. They know where I've been, they know where I've done. You can go to your schools, you can go to your coworkers, you can go to your family members, and you can say I can't tell them about Jesus. They know where I've been. They know who I am and they know where I've come from. That's exactly what Moses was saying as well. He was saying these people, that you are calling me to rescue. They only know me as a tongue-tied murderer who runs away from his problems. How am I supposed to rescue them, God? The interesting thing is that God said, don't worry because I will be with you. Don't worry about what you're gonna say because I will instruct you on what to say. And he said when they ask you who has sent you because they will ask you who sent you, he says tell them that I am brought you to them. You cannot do anything on your own strength. And we know that to be true because we look and we say I have weaknesses, I have faults, I have flaws. And we oftentimes let those things stop us and hold us back from doing what God has called us to do because God has a purpose for us. And he has outlined his purpose for us as his children in Matthew 28, 19 that says therefore, go and make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God has given us a command, the way that he has given Moses a command to go. He says go and fulfill my purpose. And the interesting part in Exodus chapter four, what Jesus or excuse me, what the Lord responds to Moses. After Moses said I'm not good with my words, even talking to you today, I'm getting tongue tied. In verse 11 it says, then the Lord asked Moses, who makes a person's mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak? Here or do not hear? See or do not see? Is it not I the Lord? Now go, I will be with you as you speak. And I will instruct you in what to say.  God was not going to let Moses give up. Moses came from a really rough past. He had a really rough beginning. You know, from the palace to the Hebrews, murdering somebody, he had a pretty bad reputation amongst the people. But like I said before, that God will not use your past to determine your future and what you will do for him. We often ask ourselves, who am I to be used by God? Who am I that God would want to use a person like me?   A person who makes mistakes? But I am here to tell you tonight who you are. The Bible says in Romans chapter eight, verse 16, that the Holy Spirit joins with our spirits to declare that we are children of God. If you are a child of God, then you must fulfill his purpose for you, which is to win souls and make disciples. That's what God has called us to do.  The Bible says, Jesus said in the book of John, he said, where I'm going, you cannot go, but don't worry, I'm not gonna leave you alone, because I am sending you the advocate. His name is Holy Spirit, and he will help you in your weakness. Your weaknesses today as a Christian are not like other people's weaknesses. The issues that you face today are not like others' issues. The problem that you have today is not like other people, because your problem is not meant to impair you, but to improve you. Your problem is meant for your belief, so that in your weakness that you will learn to run to God so that he can become your strength. Moses said, I don't have any great talents. I can't speak.  These people see me as a tongue tied murderer who runs away from their problems. How can you use me, God? I have no talent. I can't do anything. It's better if I just stay away. But Moses' story encourages me so much, because through his story, I see that my God chooses grace over talent, and he chooses weakness over strength because his power is made perfect in my weakness. That's what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 12, 9, when Paul is talking about a thorn in his flesh, because Paul encountered the same kind of issue. He said, God, I have a thorn in my flesh. I have something poking me, something bugging me, something that's trying to stop me. Please remove this thorn, make me better.  I wanna tell you that your weakness is not like any other, because as a Christian, your weakness is meant for your belief so that you will learn to run to God and to receive his strength, to receive his power. So the end of the day, when God has stamped your work and you have made it, you will know that it was not because of you, but it was only because of the Holy Spirit working in you. And like Paul, you can say, if I must boast, I will only make my boast in the Lord, because I know that it is all because of him and it's all because of grace.  Then that means you and I have a chance to do something great, to fulfill something great in life. You have a purpose and God has called you to fulfill his purpose and the way and the manner in which you and I fulfill that purpose, it's going to be different. Maybe God has called you into ministry. Maybe God has called you to be the next great worship leader. Maybe God has called you to be a doctor so that you can help people. Whatever God has called you to do, it's so that you can fulfill his purpose, to win souls, make disciples, because ultimately our purpose is so that we will not go to heaven alone. Moses, if he stayed in Midian, he would have gone to be with God alone. But God said, I hear the cry, Moses. I hear the cry, Brittany.   He said, I will be with you.  That whoever, whatever people may think about you, whatever situation or circumstance you may be facing, whatever weakness you may have, it is so that you will learn to run to God and with God, nothing is impossible. And like Moses, you can lead his people out of their slavery and into freedom. You can lead these people out of bondage into freedom. This is what God has called us to do because he's heard the cry. You may ask, who am I to do this?  You are called to do great things. You have a great and mighty purpose and you will do great and wonderful things. Jeremiah 33.3 says that God has said that I will show you great and mighty things that you do, excuse me, that you do not know. If you simply call upon me and we can do it here tonight. So maybe you're like Moses and you're standing in Moses' position. You say, you know what? It can't be me. I have too many weaknesses. I have too many flaws. I have too many things going against me. My past is too bad and I have a bad reputation. But I want you to remember that God chooses grace over talent. Or maybe you're thinking I'm like Paul and I have a thorn in my flesh and that thorn could be anything. It could be a sickness. It could be setback, limitation. It could be temptation of any kind. You name it. That thorn could be anything. But I want to remind you that God said my grace is all you need and my power is made perfect in weakness. Tonight, God is ready to give you the grace to overcome. That whatever weakness that you may be facing, whatever problem that may be standing before you that is trying to stop you from fulfilling your purpose in life. That God says that I am ready to give you my grace. Amen. Amen. So tonight, you guys, just a short message, just a little bit of my heart. I wanted to encourage you just a little bit because we have a great purpose to fulfill. In our church, in our vision, the thing that we talk about the most and that you'll hear over and over and over again is salvation of souls. You hear it because it's our heart. Why?  God has called you to be a solution to people's problems. God has called you to rescue them and he's looking for somebody not who has great strength, not who has great power because you will see that every single champion of faith in the Bible had something in common. Every single one of them had a weakness but every single champion of faith learned to turn their weakness into strength by running to God and allowing God to change their lives. And tonight, I want to encourage you with that that we're gonna take time to pray, to seek after God and to thank him that God chooses grace over talent, that he chooses weakness over strength because then people like you and me, we can do great and mighty things for God.  And you look at the life of Moses and you see all that he accomplished. He was afraid, he thought he was so weak and he thought he couldn't do it but he finally broke down and said, okay God, I'll go. And he went and what happened to him? What happened to Moses? He saw the most miraculous things that you and I could ever dream of. Moses was weak and he said, I can't go to those people. They only know me by my past but he went back to Egypt and he saw the most miraculous signs and wonders and the people of Israel followed Moses and they came to the Red Sea and the same Moses who said, I am a murderer, I am tongue tight, I run away from my problems. He faced the biggest problem of his life which was the Red Sea. And he boldly and confidently with God on his side commanded that Red Sea to be split. The same man who said, I can't talk is the same man who spoke to the sea and he said, you must be split. And he led the Israelites through that Red Sea and all the Egyptians behind him drowned in that same sea. Moses saw miracles. Moses led these people for 40 years through the wilderness and he brought them to the Promised Land just as God promised. Imagine if Moses would not have gone. Imagine if he would have let his weakness stop him from fulfilling the plan of God. He never would have seen a miracle and the people of Israel would have never made it through the Red Sea, made it through the wilderness let alone make it to the Promised Land.  Your weaknesses are meant to cause you to run to God so that you can receive your strength from him and as you do that I promise you you will see the miracles of God. Jesus said, if you only believe you will see the glory of God.


Let's get it poppin' with CC Mixer It's your boy Jeff Woong of work Also on the outside Footsteps tap clean


Yn gyfnod bwysig, gweld y gweithio o'r gyfaradau o'r fanyddion. Mae'n ddweud o'r pasiddau a yn cyffredinol o un ddweud y gweithio. Ond mae'n gweithio, mae'n cydweithio ar y fanyddion. Mae'n eu ffamilio a'r gweithio. Mae'n gweithio i chi ddim yn ei ddechrau'r gwahanol. Mae'n gweithio i chi'n credu i chi'n cael eu gofynu, felly mae'n gweithio i chi'n gweithio. Mae'r cyffredinol o'r cyfredinol o'r gwahanol, yn gallu i'r wneud, ond, a, gofyn o'w, am yma'r gwneud i'r gweledig a gweld sicrhau'n my Daimeth Soas, ychydig i bwysig o'rvoed heavier Ffyrdd mhaenfa gwrsfynllydd, gyda ffyrdd yma yw'r ymgyrchiff wedi'i ddweud yn 2006, ac mae wedi'i gweld i'r phwyddoedd PHD. RAFAIDWELL – eu gwneud i'r ffrind yma, wedyn trwy'n gofyn yn ystod ychydig a'i gweld i'w wneud. Lloro yn gwyb witnesses yma'r 2007, am y ddechrau am yr unrhyw yng Ngheirwyr i'r llwyffordd yma, ac yn ydyda i ysgrudio gyda unrhyw yng Ngheirwyr i'r llwyffordd yng Ngheirwyr, Lluís Chalender, ystod ar yr unrhyw uch chi'n lingwyd yng Ngheirwyr, mewn ddechrau am yr unrhyw yng Ngheirwyr i'r llwyffordd yng Ngheirwyr, ac yn y boedd ystafell yng ngheirwyr i'r llwyffordd yng ngheirwyr i'r llwyffordd yng Ngheirwyr. Felly, mae'r ddalun o'r cyfan rhaid fydd i'w eu rhan, ac rwy'n gwybod wedi'u gweithio'r ddechrau 8-9 oed yn ymgyrchu. A'r hyn yw, ymgyrch yn ymgyrch yn cyfrifio'r sgwmwysgol a'r sgwmwysgol ymgyrch yn ddechrau'r sgwmwysgol, a'r hyn o'r hyn o'r gweld ymgyrch yn ymgyrch. Yn gwrth gwrs y dyfodol sydd wedi'u gweithio, mae'r allan y gallai sgwmwysgol a gyda'r sgwmwysgol, You'll always be part of the Sias community, as Georgie said. One of the defining characteristics, as I'm sure parents and family have picked up of Sias, is our strong sense of community. That comes from identification, a shared emotional connection between members. It means talking about we and us rather than I and me. Now, the members of that community obviously include students and staff, but also many research associates and our honorary members of the school, and I'm very pleased that we're welcoming Professor John Keats here to this community today. Welcome, John. And as well as a strong sense of community, which is one of the things that makes Sias stand out from other universities, one of the other things that makes Sias an alum special is their determination to make a positive impact and a difference to the world. Every year I look through what our students have done. Every year I'm overwhelmed by what they've achieved. I'll just give you some examples. So economic student Sarah Bedford's social enterprise was joint winner of the London Entrepreneurs Challenge Provis Prize. Her initiative, which is called Eat and Greet, tackles social isolation in residential homes bringing together care home residents with groups of visitors over a weekly lunch. Or take another example. Politics students, Mauro Etoggi, manages to combine his studies, he's just finished his second year, with elite sport, captaining the England World Championship winning under 20 rugby team and playing for Saracens. Or PhD student Portia Owusu, who's won a highly prestigious Fulbright scholarship, joined a community of scholars that includes more than 50 Nobel Prize winners. Portia will be developing her research into English and American literature, slavery and the West African diaspora at the University of Kansas. I could go on, I could give a half hour speech or more what our students have done. But all these are just examples that highlight the real impact that Sarah's students make. I hope that you will inspire you to achieve the goals on whatever path you choose to take. So what does it mean to graduate from the school? Well, by graduating from Sarah's, you join a worldwide family of 50,000 alumni, most of whom are still in regular contact with us. We have authors, philosophers, musicians, TV presenters, filmmakers, comedians, restaurant owners, chocolatiers, diplomats, journalists, MPs, criminals, managing directors, human rights lawyers, political activists, academics. You name it and a science graduate has probably done it. Whenever our alumni go on to achieve great eminence and be very successful, and you may have heard of our recent £20 million donation from one of our alumni, Fred Ikena, through his Alford Wood Foundation. Now, if you ever find yourselves in that kind of robust financial position, and no doubt some of you will, please don't hesitate to give us a call and your check. But seriously, many of our graduates give something back to the school, not just money, but time. Some fund scholarships, others act as advocates for the university. One of the best things you can do is to persuade people to come to science. I've heard a mouth that is incredibly effective, but take our alum for coffee scheme, puts current students in touch with our wonderful network of alumni for insights and advice into the wealth of different career paths they've followed. So I hope you've gathered. Today does not mark the end of your relationship with SOAS. You're now part of this great community across the world and will follow your careers with enormous interest. Now, for some reason, new science graduates can be quite hard to reach. I think that's because everyone disperses around the world, and you're all out doing amazing things. So please help us keep in touch with you by giving either the careers or alumni team your contact information today, either in the gowning area or in the marquee. Now these are exciting times for SOAS. We're working towards our centenary in 2016-17. We plan to celebrate this in proper SOAS style in London, but also all around the world. The newly refurbished north block of Senate House will open in June 2016. The building will offer state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities and student services. And think of the new possibilities it will offer for student occupations. No, seriously. I shouldn't have said that. I'm getting demob happy, evidently. I would never have said that if I was carrying on as director. That's a shocking thing to say. Right. Seriously, it will mean that SOAS will be once again a single site campus with all the energy, intellectual curiosity, all the other things that define our community concentrated into a single vibrant precinct. Senate House is the perfect launch pad for SOAS's second century. So my thanks to all of you graduating today for your contribution to the life of the school during your time here. The school is only as good as its students. When I know, after nine years here and many visits to universities around the globe, that our students are absolutely the very best that there are in the world. The best to luck to you in the future.


As a result of the shooting in Allen, June 30, which resulted in the death of three officers, many organizations are offering grief counseling services to the families and those affected by the tragedy. Governor Andy Beshear assured that counseling is available not only on the state level, but within the affected communities. There's assistance either right now, even outside the funerals, the Billy Graham Foundation is there. But we have assistance for law enforcement that is there on a statewide level, as well as on the county and community level. We're making sure that that grief counseling is available and also help going forward. We've been through a lot of trauma in the last couple of years, some of it overt like this, some of it having our lives turned upside down and it can accumulate. And something like this on top of all the rest can just be so much. And so I hope everyone will get that help. I know some of our groups are actually mandating a little bit of it in the beginning and that's a good thing. There shouldn't be any stigma. Everybody can get a little bit of help to move forward. Top 10% national hospital rankings for patient safety and heart attack and heart failure treatment. The technology is skilled to perform extraordinary complex, minimally invasive cardiac, electrophysiology, interventional and structural heart surgeries. This is a heart and vascular institute at Pikeville Medical Center. When it comes to your heart, place your care in our hands. While the funeral services have concluded, Bashir stresses the importance to continue support for the affected communities. We mainly need to make sure we're there for the families and the communities, not just today and tomorrow when all the focus will be there, but in the weeks and the months and the years to come. That's meeting some of the needs of the law enforcement community. It's meeting some of the needs of the broader community. It's making sure we're there for those kids and spouses and loved ones that are really, really hurting. And we have to call out these acts of violence every single time. Anti-government groups, domestic terrorists, there can be no room for them to operate in our communities or in our state. The Fully County Crisis Fund is accepting donations, which will be used to help officers and their families, as well as the affected departments. To donate, go to Appalachianky.org. For Mountain Top News, I'm Breonna Robinson.


Income tax 2023-2024, business income part number one.  First a word from our sponsor. Yeah, actually we're sponsoring ourselves on this one because apparently the merchandisers, they don't want to be seen with us.  Like our, trust me, I'm an accountant product line.  Because apparently we're among the only ones equipped with the number crunching skills to answer society's current deep complex and nuanced questions. If you would like a commercial free experience, consider subscribing to our website at accountinginstruction.com or accountinginstruction.thinkific.com-24. Most of this information can be found in publication, 3-3-4, tax guide for small business for individuals who use Schedule C tax year 2023, which you can find on the IRS website at irs.gov, irs.gov. Remember that the first half of the income tax formulas basically a funny income statement. Most income statements having income minus expense resulting in net income. Here having income minus various deductions resulting in taxable income. The sole proprietorship Schedule C rolling into line one income of the formula, which is a little funny because the Schedule C itself is basically an income statement. Having business income minus business expenses otherwise known as business deductions resulting in, in essence, net business income which rolls into line one income of the income tax formula, reflecting the calculation on the form 1040 page number one that we see here. Schedule C ultimately rolling into line eight additional income from Schedule one. Here is the Schedule one additional income and adjustments to income. Part number one Schedule C rolling into line three business income or loss from the Schedule C. Here is the Schedule C profit or loss from business has a P&L format profit and loss format otherwise known as an income statement format income minus expenses. We're now going to be looking at this income line item of the profit and loss. So business income introduction. Now remember when we're thinking about our income taxes then income is good. In essence, I'm sorry income is basically bad, right? It's flipped on its head. Usually income is good. Income is basically bad for taxes and the expenses which are typically bad are now good for taxes because those are the deductions. When we think about a normal income tax setup then the question comes as to whether something has to be included in income or not. And we would prefer that it could be excluded from income because that would lower the amount of net income, which would lower the amount of taxes typically. The next question is where on the tax return does it need to be included in income? Here, of course, we're concentrating on the Schedule C. So what types of things need to be included in the Schedule C income as opposed to possibly be included somewhere else on the income tax return? You might ask, why does it matter if it's income? It's income. However, it could matter for multiple different reasons. One would be that some incomes are subject to different tax rates. So we have a progressive ordinary income tax rate, which goes up as our income goes up. And then some things have better tax rates such as possibly long-term capital gains or qualified dividends, for example. Also, when something is on the Schedule C, then it could have an impact as to whether we have income or a loss. We might have situations where we have losses on the Schedule C, which possibly could be restricted in some ways and possibly could be calculated or influence other calculations. Also, if something is subject to income on a Schedule C, it's most likely going to be self-employment income, which not only is going to have an impact for the federal income tax, but also calculating the self-employment tax. And that can be huge, right? So if we could include something in income somewhere else, it might be beneficial even if it's subject still to ordinary income rates because then if we can get it not subject to self-employment tax, then that would be nice. Okay, that's just the introduction. So this chapter primarily explains business income and how to account for it on your tax return and what items are not considered income and gives guidelines for selected occupations. So if there is a connection between any income you receive and your business, the income is business income. So obviously when we think about business income, we're typically saying, I'm in the business of X, this is what I do, and the revenue that is generated through the connection to that business, you would think would be business income and not reported like as other income or something like that on the tax return in general. So a connection exists if it is clear that the payment of income would not have been made if you did not have the business. So you can have business income even if you are not involved in the activity on a regular full-time basis. So in other words, we often come up to these questions of what if I have a gig-work type of business basically on the side? Is that still business income? Because I also have a W-2 job. Well, typically, yes, if it's a profit-seeking business, even if it's not full-time, you typically have to record it on the Schedule C, which has its pros and cons. What are the pros of doing that? The benefits are that you might be able to deduct the expenses. What are the cons? One of the biggest cons is that you might also be subject to self-employment tax, social security and Medicare taxes. If it wasn't a business, that's when we get back into this question of, is it a hobby versus a business? If it was a hobby, then you might not be able to take the deductions or at least be severely limited in the deductions you can take because the IRS is skeptical of losses on something that is a hobby. But the income that you have might be recorded as hobby income in that case, in which case you might not be subject to that big self-employment tax item. All right, income from work you do on the side in addition to your regular job can be business income. For example, you may be in the business of providing services for a ride-sharing business as a second job. You report your most business income, such as income from selling your products or services on Schedule C. So that's our point of focus. If you have a second business, if you just start a hot dog stand, even if you're not registered in the state, even if it's an illegal hot dog stand and you're selling toxic radioactive hot dogs, then it might be illegal. You might be going to jail if the cops get you or whatnot.  Now, of course, you could start up other types of entities. If you're a partnership, then you would have to file a second partnership return typically so that you can then allocate the income between the partners, which would flow through to the respective Schedule C's of two or more people in the partnership. You might also be an S corporation, which has a separate entity return or C corporation. But our focus here, of course, is on the sole proprietorship reporting on the Schedule C. But you report the income from the sale of business assets, such as land and office building on other forms instead of Schedule C. So we talked a little bit about this before noting that the Schedule C is basically an income statement. And we don't have the balance sheet. Some things, however, are still reported that are basically balance sheet items such as depreciable property being reported on depreciation schedules and inventory calculations for the cost of goods sold, which has the beginning and inventory items, which are balance sheet accounts. If you sell depreciable property, the gain or loss is a bit of a complex calculation. And you'll typically calculate that on separate forms. And you'll have to determine what the tax rate if there's a gain will be applied. Should it be subject to capital gains or subject to ordinary income? So that'll typically be done on a separate form, even though it's related to the Schedule C. So for information on selling business assets, you can see Chapter 3 of this publication, Non-Employee Compensation. Business income includes amounts you received in your business that were properly shown on forms 1099 in EC. Now, this is a practical question that often comes up. Often happens when people go from a W-2 employment job to a Schedule C type of business.  You just get your withholding set up and the employer does everything. You don't actually write a check.  When someone moves to a Schedule C business, they have to make their own payments and make their own estimates, which is quite difficult in the first couple of years of operations because you have no idea what your yearly income will be. People will often say, well, I didn't get a W-2 for it, something. I didn't get anybody reporting income to me and therefore I don't have to record it as income because the IRS usually forces the employer to give documentation. In other words, the question is, if I did not get a 1099 for income, does that mean I have to include it in income? Answer, yes, you generally still have to include it in income. It's just that the IRS has gotten more invasive in trying to get all of the income reported in a W-2 or 1099 type of format. If you fill out a Schedule C and you don't have income added up to the level of 1099s that you have received from people that you have done business with, it's likely the IRS is going to question you because they're going to say, hey, look, we got documentation saying that you got more income than you reported on your Schedule C. However, some places aren't going to give you a 1099. Classically, that would be like restaurants, hair salons, masseuse parlors and whatnot. Anything that provides services or possibly goods to end users and not to other businesses will probably not get a 1099 because when you get your haircut, the IRS has no way to force you as the employee, as the person that's getting the work done to invoice the person cutting the hair. Why? Because you don't get a deduction for the haircut and therefore the IRS has no leverage. So those types of business are kind of nefarious from the IRS's perspective as not reporting their income because the IRS doesn't have that double check of checking the 1099s. If, on the other hand, you have a job that works for another business, let's say you have a job that you do work and you primarily work for auto manufacturer companies that are large companies, they will almost certainly give you a 1099 because they want the deduction on their side. So from a practical standpoint, you can't really use the 1099s to create your income statement. You want to do your own bookkeeping and you are responsible for your own bookkeeping. You're responsible for your own estimate of the taxes and the reporting. And if you report less top-line income than the 1099s you receive, that's a pretty big indication that something went wrong and you will probably get a letter from the IRS. If you don't report your income at all, the IRS is going to get these 1099s and they're going to probably come after you for gross income without any of the deductions because if you didn't report the Schedule C, they don't have the information for the deductions. And that's where people really get in problems oftentimes by not filing their tax returns and then the IRS goes after them for the top line of income and without any deductions. Okay, so this includes amounts reported as non-employee compensation in box one of the form. So you can find more information in the instructions on the back of the form 1099 in EC. You receive payment and card and third party network transactions. Alright, so if you are in a business, you may receive a form 1099K representing the total dollar amount of total reportable payment transactions. This may not be the amount you should report as income as it may not include all the receipts and it may include items that are not included in your receipt such as sales tax. Okay, so this becomes an issue because let's just think through this just so we get an idea of what is happening. We're responsible for our own bookkeeping whether we get a 1099 or not. But the IRS wants to verify our income and is going to try to force us to get a 1099. How do they do that? They go after the person that is paying typically because they're the one that wants a deduction. So if you did work for another business, the business would see you as a contractor. They want to deduct on their tax return contractor expenses. The IRS says if you want to do that, you have to issue them a 1099 in EC otherwise we come after you.  Whether you get that document or not, you should report the income. But then the IRS is going to say sometimes with this gig work stuff in particular, you have these platforms that aren't really, they're not really hiring contractors. The platform is acting like a silk road almost facilitating or providing a connection for business to take place between someone that needs business done like computer work or something and the person that has the skills. So now people can come together even if they're on the different side of the world with some of these applications that aren't really hiring contractors. They're just providing the silk road. They're just providing the connection. But then the IRS is like, well, that's cool. That could really help the economy and people can make a lot of... But who are we going to go after to issue the 1099 in that case? So could you go after the platform that will really destroy the whole gig economy if they make the platform issue a 1099 to everyone that uses it? That would be kind of an issue or they can go after the payment processors like credit card companies, the pay pals of the world and so on and so forth. And so that's where we're currently at. So now they're trying to pressure the big payment processors and whatnot to give a 1099 and so these are kind of the sources of the 1099s that you might get that the IRS is trying to do to support and show income reporting. Business income deduction. Income you report on Schedule C may be qualified business income and entitle you to the deduction on Form 1040 or 1040 SR Line 14. Now this is a deduction that came up a few years ago. It's kind of a mess of a deduction because they were trying to simplify the tax code actually and they're often looking at larger companies when they think about the tax consequences and then the small sole proprietors they have to kind of fill a plug in and this deduction became kind of like the plug to deal with the tax law changes that they put in place. So we might talk about it a little bit more in detail later but there is that. You can see Form 8995A or Form 8995 to figure your deduction if any. So kinds of income. You must report on your tax return all income you receive from your business unless it is excluded by law. That's the general stance of the IRS. Remember income is basically bad for taxes so we would like to be able to get income but be able to exclude it meaning not included for taxes which would lower our taxes. The IRS's perspective everything should be included unless they say otherwise. So in most cases your business income will be in the form of cash, checks, credit card charges. So usually these days possibly you have your electronic transfers set up and you're going to get electronic transfers. It used to be checks, cash. Now most likely you get the electronic transfers often times especially if you're doing some kind of online type of business. So but business income can be in other forms such as property or services. Sometimes people feel that if they don't get cash because they're on a cash based method then they don't have to record income and that will lead people to try to barter. So if you trade, I trade you goods for services, I give you goods or services, you give me goods or services then I didn't have any cash therefore I shouldn't have income. But although you could hide income that way because it's not going to hit your books in the same way it should still be income because you can imagine inserting cash into the transaction, right? And that's a good way to kind of think about it. Like you could say well if you do work for me and I paid you cash and then I did work for you you'd pay me the cash back. So I'd give you $100 for the work you did and then you give me the $100 back for the work I did and cash would be impacted. Obviously we can then just remove the $100 and have a barter in situation but clearly income has still been happening as well as expenses. The net impact and net income would basically be the same income minus expenses in that case but you should have income and expenses. All right, caution. So if you are a U.S. citizen who has business income from sources outside the United States for an income you must report that income on your tax return unless it is exempt from tax under U.S. law. Clearly it gets complex when we have foreign income taking place because now the question is who do we owe the taxes to? The foreign entity or the U.S. entity this will be impacted by tax treaties and what not what's our agreement in the U.S. with the other country in terms of who's going to be applicable for the tax and clearly this gets into more complex situations so you as a tax preparer would need to think is this an area that I want to take on where we have foreign income or is that possibly an area that I want to stay away from? Do I want to specialize in it, become an expert and pick up clients that have that specific need possibly or learn it or not touch it, right? So if you live outside the United States you may be able to exclude part or all of your foreign source business income for Detail C Publication 54 tax guide for U.S. citizens and resident aliens abroad bartering for property or services bartering trading in other words you trading instead of cash so bartering is an exchange of property or services you must include in your gross receipts at the time received the fair market value of property or services you received in exchange for something else so this is like the example that we said we traded we can imagine the money being inserted in the transaction then the question is well how much money should be inserted if I had goods or services that I've received well it's going to be the fair market value then of course the question is what is the fair market value so if you exchange services with another person and you both have agreed ahead of time on the fair value of their services that value will be accepted as the fair market value unless the value can be shown to be otherwise so generally it would be the value the general value that the service would be basically traded for given to people that didn't have any particular pressure on them to make the exchange and so on and so forth for the fair market value you would think then that if you're selling something the price that you sell it for usually would be a fair market value if you can actually sell that thing on the market so the thing that you've received in exchange for it you would think would be of the same value if you traded it one for one example you are a self-employed lawyer you perform a legal services for a client a small corporation and payment for your services you receive shares of stock in the corporation so they didn't pay you cash they gave you stock okay so now I need to know the cost or basis of the stock because when I sell the stock I'm going to have a gain or loss on it and when I received the stock I've got income in essence for the services that I provide so you must include the fair market value of the shares in income so example two you are an artist and create a work of art this is a work of art right here do you see this cat I made this my I'm an AI artist some people look down on us but I think it's in a case you are an artist and create a work of art and compensate your landlord for the rent free use of your apartment so I should try that I should give this to my landlord see if they stop it'd be good for rent so you must include the fair rental value of the apartment in your grocery seat your landlord must include the fair market value of the artwork in their rental income so okay example three so you are a self-employed accountant both you and a house painter are members of a barter club and organization that each year gives its members a directory of members and the services each members provide so now you can imagine people setting up a barter situation where if you're in the club you know you can trade services from people in the club so members get in touch with other members directly and bargain for the value of the services to be performed and return for accounting services you provide for the house painter's business the house painter painted your home you must include in gross receipts the fair value of the services you receive from the house painter because they gave you the house painting not for free but because you gave them accounting services so therefore you have income right so the house painter must include the fair market value of your accounting services and their gross receipts so obviously on their side they got accounting services and they need to record that as income even on their side before for what they performed for the house painting example four so you are a member of a barter club again that uses credit units to credit or debit a member's accounts so now you have a more sophisticated barter club for example which applies credits right so now you're going to use the credits and they basically have come up with a money system in the bartering situation right the credits basically representing kind of money right so you are a member of a barter club that uses credit units to credit or debit member accounts for goods or services provided or received as soon as units are credited to your account you can use them to buy goods or services or sell or transfer the units to other members so you must include the value of credit units you received in your gross receipts for the tax year in which the units are credited to your account so you're basically doing work and you're getting paid in kind of like an alternative currency you don't be like you're getting paid in foreign currency they're giving you credits for this group where you can then use those credits in order to purchase goods and services which means it's kind of like you got paid in bitcoin or something like that so again the iris is saying well that sounds like revenue as we want it we want a piece of that so the dollar value of money received for services by an employee of the club who can use the units in the same manner as other members must be included in the employee's gross income for the tax year in which received so it is wages subject to social security, Medicare taxes, FICA, FUTA taxes and income tax withholding so more information there you can see publication 15 example 5 so you join a barter club again these barter clubs man tell you they suck you in so you join a barter club and agree to provide plumbing services to any member for a specific number of hours each member has access to a directory that lists the members of the club and the services available members contact each other directly and request services to be performed you are not required to provide services unless requested by another member but you can use as many of the offered services as you wish without paying a fee so you must include the fair market value of any services you receive from club members in your grocery seats when you receive them if you have not provided any services to club members and you can see that some of these things might have been set up with an idea of saying well it's justifiable for me to avoid the taxes because I'm giving up a gift right it's just a gift I'm giving services just for like a charity thing but obviously the services aren't going to a charitable organization it's just a more complex structure of a bartering system that's being put together so in reality of course you should be including it in income because the only reason you're doing the work is because you're getting paid just in a different format so these clubs then they still could be useful but they shouldn't be used as a way to hide your income which some people might use them for still which wouldn't be a legal way to use them right because you could say you could use this as a way to say well I won't be tracking my income this way because cash will not be involved right there's no cash changing therefore it's never going to hit my QuickBooks file therefore it's never going to hit my bank account and therefore there's no big audit trail for it which is not so again that would be not a legal way to do it right but you could see that still might be some incentives behind some of these bartering exchanges even though they should be included in income people are kind of you know they might be erasing basically the audit trail and not included in income still but they should be included because clearly there's income okay information returns if you are involved in a bartering transaction you may have to file either of the following forms a form 1099B proceeds from broker and barter exchange transactions so you could see why the IRS might go after some of these groups and say hey look we need a 1099 because because people are trying to hide maybe their income because there's no cash involved which we can't okay or form 1099 miscellaneous alright real estate rents if you are a real estate dealer who receives income from renting real property or an owner of a hotel motel etc who produces services that includes made services for example etc for guests report the rental income and expenses on schedule C now the rental income becomes a whole issue in and of itself because like if you have a separate property for example that you rent as rental property then you might be reporting that on a separate schedule like a schedule E but and that's because you might have separation between for example whether it be self-employment income because it might be considered more passive income and therefore possibly not subject to self-employment which would be huge social security and Medicare it also could come fall into passive income restrictions but if you if it's more like a hotel that you're running then you would think that you are doing active services for it and therefore it would maybe be reported on the schedule C what's the difference well if you're providing substantial services like made services and cleaning and what not and that kind of stuff you would think it would more likely fall under the schedule C which would be bad in some ways because then it's subject possibly to self-employment tax but good in some ways because it might not be restricted to self-employment I mean to passive income rules which can restrict for example losses so if you are not a real estate dealer or the kind of owner described in the proceeding sentence report the rental income and expenses on schedule E for more information see publication 527 residential rental property we might go into residential rental property in a future course or section real estate dealer if you are a real estate dealer you are a real estate dealer if you are engaged in the business of selling real estate to customers with the purpose of making a profit from those sales so rent you receive from real estate held for sale to customers is subject to self-employment tax so now you're saying you're a dealer which we're saying again possibly separate then having passive income that would be reported on the schedule C possibly subject to passive income limitations on losses but in this case you have self-employment income because we're saying you're an active business and therefore have active business income possibly subject again to the self-employment tax so however our rent to receive from real estate held for special specialization or investment is not subject to the self-employment tax so that becomes a big deal as to whether you're going to be hit with that self-employment tax or not when you're dealing with real estate so trailer park owner so rental income from a trailer park is subject to self-employment tax if you are a self-employed trailer park owner who provides trailer lots and facilities substantial services for the convenience of your tenants so in other words now you own a trailer park and the trailer park maybe it has a pool and it has stuff that you're maintenance in fire pits and that kind of stuff well now you're doing active work therefore you would think it would be reported on the schedule C subject to self-employment tax as opposed to possibly the schedule E which would be subject to the passive income loss rules possibly but possibly not subject to the self-employment tax you are generally considered to provide substantial services for tenants they are primarily for the tenants convenience and are not normally provided to maintain the lots in a condition for occupancy so are you just doing enough to keep the lot the dirt they're ready to go so people can put their trailer park on it or are you providing morning meals and more service than that services are substantial if the compensation for the services make up a material part of the tenants rental payments in other words when they pay you are they paying you just for a plot of land or for the substantial services you're providing on it example of services that are not normally provided for tenants convenience include supervising and maintaining a recreational hall provided by the park distributing and monthly newsletter to tenants operating a laundry facility and helping tenants buy or sell their trailers examples of services that are generally provided to maintain the lots in condition for tenant occupancy include city sewage electrical connections and roadways alright so now we have the hotels boarding houses and apartments so rental income you receive for the use occupancy of hotel boarding houses or apartment houses are subject to self-employment tax if you provide services for the occupants in a hotel do I report it on schedule E not subject to self-employment tax and subject to passive loss rules or on schedule C which is subject to self-employment tax you would think schedule C because a hotel does a lot of services we get into those kind of questionable areas when we rent out like part of a home or something like that then the question is well is that just a passive renting a part of the home or are there substantial services involved which again could be a big deal given the fact that we have the self-employment tax involved so generally you are considered to provide services for the occupants if the services are primarily for their convenience and are not services normally provided with the rental of rooms for occupancy only so an example of services that is not normally provided for the convenience of the occupants is made services so however providing heat and light cleaning stairways and lobbies and collecting trash our services normally provided for the occupants convenience alright prepaid rent so advanced payments received under a least that does not put any restriction on their use or enjoyment of income in the year you receive them so now you have this situation where remember that you could be on an accrual method in under an accrual method you wouldn't recognize revenue until work was done but what if you got money in advance you got prepaid rent well the IRS's position might end up being well if you got the money and there's no restrictions on the money we want a piece of the money which means you might be deviating from an accrual concept in that case so this is generally true no matter what accounting method or period you use if you received prepaid rent under a cashed method then it would be income because you got cash but if you receive prepaid rent under an accrual method it wouldn't be income under an accrual method until you did the work to earn the money either provided the goods or services but the IRS might put an exception in there saying if you got the money we want or part of it when you get it because it's prepaid and there's nothing really stopping you from paying them at that time lease bonus a bonus you receive from a leaseee for granting a lease is an addition to the rent include it in your gross receipt and the year received lease cancellation payments report payments you receive from your leasee for cancelling a lease in your gross receipts in the year received payments to third parties so if your leasee makes payments to someone else under the agreement to pay your debts or obligations include the payments in your gross receipts when the lease makes the payments so in other words now you have a situation where one person is paying off a third party so if a leasee makes payments to someone else so let's say they were going to make payments to me they're renting out some apartment or something they're paying the money to me but I say no I want you to pay it to this third party go pay it to my ex-wife or something like that because I owe child support alimony this is not me I don't owe any child support alimony I'm just saying like what if you if you did that well you can't just say pay off someone else on my behalf because again if you were to put the money inside the transaction you can kind of see it because that would be the same as if they paid you went and paid you know the ex-wife or something like that right so the fact that you skipped the middle person and just went directly to the third party doesn't negate the fact that you should have to record the income so a common example of this kind of income is a leasee payment of your property taxes on the least real property alright settlement payments payments you received in settlement of a leasee's obligation to restore the least property to its original condition or income in the amount that the payments exceed the adjusted basis of the leasehold improvements destroyed damaged removed or disconnected by the leasee meaning they added something to it of value which is basically they're going to say a form of payment personal property rents if you are in the business of renting personal property equipment vehicles formal where so now in other words not basically real property or real estate in other words but personal property include the rental amount you received in your gross receipt on schedule C so prepaid rent and other payments described under real estate rents earlier can also be received for renting personal property so if you receive any of those payments include them in your gross receipts as explained in that discussion


Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel. It is Drew here from Lone Fox and I hope that everyone is having an amazing day. I know I am and I am super, super excited for today's new video. I'm pretty sure a lot of you guys have probably seen on my channel in the past some of my IKEA hacks videos. If you have not, I will link some right up here for you guys to check out. But it is basically where I head to IKEA, find some items that are there that might be just like a little bit bland or can be spiced up a little bit. And then I take them home, DIY them and kind of hack them into new pieces for your space. I also wanted to thank everyone so much for the love and support on my last couple of videos, that apartment transformation. All the comments were so sweet and thank you guys just so much. I've never done a project like that before. So it was a really, really fun one and I can't wait to do more of those in the future. And then also on the bathroom transformation I did for my mom and that one was also a super fun one. I am obsessed with the before and after that one. I think it is such a cool comparison seeing what it looks like before and what you could turn something into on not even a humongous budget, you know? So, and I know a lot of you guys also mentioned you wanted to see a reveal from my parents. I wasn't able to film that sadly because I ended up staying one additional day when they had planned and they were just gone that entire day when I was filming there and I had to head back to LA the same day. So there was just no way I was able to film that reveal but they really do love it. And yeah, I just wanted to thank everyone so much for the love on those videos but today we are focusing on IKEA hacks and if you are not ready, subscribe to my channel. I post brand new home decor and DOI videos every single week and I think we should just jump right into the first one. So let's get started. For our first project here, I'm doing a rug and I've actually used this exact rug in the past and I did a different pattern on it with some white paint but today I'm gonna be doing a kind of like diagonal line zigzag ish pattern. You're gonna see in a second here and I'm gonna be using black paint and I just love how I'm able to alter this super affordable $30 jute rug and just make it look a lot more expensive and something that was sold at a place like Urban Outfitters which is where I got the inspo for this rug from. So let's turn this $30 rug into something new. Alrighty, so we are gonna start off with the low house rug and I'm folding it in half to find the middle point. Now something you're gonna see me do a lot in this is I actually use this kind of like jute material almost like a grid system because there's a lot of knots so you're actually able to like measure in terms of knots instead of inches and that's exactly what I did. So on the edge, far left edge, I went up 16 knots and then I went ahead and I used the tape to go into the center section and I just created this almost diagonal shape that creates a zigzag. It's a little bit more self-explanatory if you just do it yourself and figure out where you want those actual pieces to be and then what I did after I created that middle sort of zigzag section was I then went in and created areas that I was gonna tape off where there was gonna be no paint and basically I taped over every two rows of knots and then I left one row empty. So that way we had thin black strips and I also went ahead and taped off all of the middle section. I could have probably cut a piece of paper to save some tape but I got the roll of tape at the dollar store so it wasn't too crazy for me at all. I just went ahead and taped everything off as shown here and then I used a black spray paint to just go ahead and spray on here and I did two passes on each line and I also didn't really mind if some of the areas didn't get fully covered because I feel like kind of a little bit of a distressed look is nice as well. So I let that dry for just a couple of hours and then I came back and pulled off all the tape which was so satisfying and I just love revealing rug projects like this when I've done them in the past.  I have not done a throw pillow in a while here on the channel and I used to do those all the time and I've actually seen some comments asking why I haven't done them because it was such a routine for me to throw a throw pillow that was not intentional to throw a throw pillow into an IKEA hacks video but I wanted to do it today. So I picked up the Vigdis pillow cover and it's like a linen light kind of creamy tone. I think it's such a pretty pillow cover especially for $8 and we are going to be turning this into kind of like one of those very minimalistic line face artwork pieces that I've been doing lately on my channel. Okay, this pillow is super easy and simple and it's going to cost you almost nothing. So I found this really cute design on Pinterest. I will link the original below and I wanted to recreate it on this pillow so I grabbed a pencil and just kind of lightly sketched out the design that I wanted to do on here and next what I did was I used some FaberTec adhesive and I kind of traced along small sections of my lines and worked in smaller sections and used a nice thick kind of like charcoal gray yarn and I glued it on top. This is not going to be the finishing like look of the piece. So there's going to be a little bit more stability in a second. I just went ahead and I glued this down that way. It held in place so we can work on the next part. So I went around and did this to the entire face and as I was doing it, I kind of did realize that I probably should have followed the same exact graphic look and done like the red cheeks or the pink cheeks with the red lips because when you have all this gray in this face formation, it almost can look a little wonky if that makes sense. So I grabbed a yarn in a similar color that was a lot thinner and what I'm doing is from the backside of the pillow, I'm actually sewing up one side of the yarn that we glued down and then down the other side and I'm just doing this about every single inch and I'm not pulling it tight at all. This is just going to basically reinforce what we have glued down and make sure that nothing is going to move around. So this pillow is going to be a great high quality finish if that makes sense. You could if you really wanted to stitch around the entire thing and give it like a full on and like puffy embroidered look but I just did it about every inch, every inch and a half as you can kind of see there just to make sure that the original piece was held down and that finishes off your pillow. And our last project is the largest scale one and this is using that John Axel, John Axel, John Axel shelf system from Ikea. This is just a super affordable $20 miniature little shelf and we're just going to be transforming this into something that looks a little bit more expensive than just the kind of plain basic white metal. We're going to be adding some contact paper some spray paint and turning it into kind of like a miniature bar cart is what I styled it as but you can use this as of course a miniature shelf or even two nightstands cause they're on the smaller side. So let's jump into this one. Moving into something a little bit more larger in size we're going to be working with this John Axel metal shelf system and this is super easy to use. I'm just basically going to be taking all the leg pieces taking them outside and using the matte black farmhouse black spray paint which you guys have seen me use a lot on my channel. I really, really like this one and it gives such a pretty like nice matte finish. So I went ahead and I sprayed all the leg portions with the black because we're actually going to be covering the main sections with some marble contact paper. So this was actually, I bought this at Target and you get 20 feet of it for only like $6. I will say that the pattern is not super crystal clear and it also kind of has like a little bit of a pixelation to it but for the project it definitely worked but I'm going to link below an Amazon one that's just a little bit better. So what I did was I went ahead and I cut around the outside leaving about three inches of excess around all the contact paper sections and then I pulled off a little bit to start and I'm going to be pushing this down making sure that I leave an edge on there that way we can wrap it and you're going to see what I mean by that in a little bit.  You can also use a credit card if needed and also feel free to poke tiny little holes push out any air bubbles. So in order to wrap the corners you're just going to need to cut out the actual corner piece as shown here and then just flip it over and wrap it. So you're just going to basically push up that edge and then wrap it all the way around to the underside and it's pretty, I feel like self-explanatory as you can see here I'm just wrapping it all the way around making sure everything's nice and smooth and securing it on the underside. And you're going to repeat the same steps onto all three shelves and I'm also going to link a couple other contact papers that I think that this would look really pretty with below because there are some stunning ones on Amazon. I'll make sure to link those for you guys. And then the last thing you have to do is just assemble it based off of your instructions. So just follow the instructions of the shelving system you're using if you're following the same one. It's just easier than me kind of explaining it. I also had to hammer in the tops and bottoms to finish off this piece. And lastly I sprayed a little bit of that matte farmhouse paint in a cup and I just painted it on any areas that I felt like could use a little bit of a touch up and that finished off our shelf. So the last project is one I was actually not even going to include in the video because it did not turn out as a finished project. Basically it did break during the drying process and that is because I used something I shouldn't have. I used a glass object as like a mold instead of a cardboard or styrofoam or plastic object which is what you're supposed to use for cement. So you're gonna see what happens throughout this process but try to keep an open mind to if you did do this using like a styrofoam bowl or something that you were able to remove easily how cute this would actually turn out because it's such a great idea and I still wanted to share it with you guys. So I'm gonna try to redo this and it's using an IKEA $9 mirror and we're turning it into this little tray jewelry holder vanity situation. That's really cute. So let's get started. So here's that mirror I was talking about, the last spin mirror and then this also is a quick-create concrete. I got this at Home Depot. It comes in a 20 pound bucket and it is pre-sifted. This is the best cement I've ever used so I highly suggest this for you guys and I also use this IKEA storage box lid as the base and that's the glass object that ruined everything. So basically what I did was I first started out by mixing up the concrete. I just kind of do this by eye but I'm sure there's some form of rhyme or reason to this. I just mixed it up with some water and make sure it's all nice and good. As you can see here, the consistency is like a thick cake batter. And I'm gonna be, I had to do this a couple of times. I didn't realize how much concrete I actually needed but I did create a couple batches of it and smoothed it out in the lid section and I went ahead and I repeated this probably three to four times until I had enough concrete to fill in the lid. Another tip that I think is super, super helpful when working with concrete is to tap it on your surface or drop it a couple of times. This is going to remove air bubbles and also really flatten the top of the surface and make sure the cement is just very equally dispersed across what you're working with. So then what I did was I pushed down at the mirror base. As you can see here, I wanted it in the top left corner and I smoothed a little bit of my cement over the top of that and then I pushed in my glass object and I was thinking that this would just pop right out once it was dry but it did not pop right out once it was dry. So I tapped this a couple more times, kind of let it dry overnight and then this is what occurred. Okay guys, so here is the project that did not turn out as I wanted it to. I know exactly what I should have done to make it turn out perfectly but I definitely should have not used this glass. I really thought that it would just honestly come right off the concrete cause it's a very slippery surface but I should have found something that was a little bit maybe more plasticky or something that I could bend and really break out of the concrete because with me trying to then pull this out I cracked it in so many different places then tried to cover up the cracks with concrete and the concrete is not the same color anymore and it just, it wouldn't even come out. So basically I should have just used something to create little jewelry dish that was maybe made of paper or like a styrofoam bowl or something that you can push down in there and easily remove. Then this would have turned out great because look at these sides, like the sides look so perfect, everything else is great but it did crack where it shouldn't have and then this turned out really cute too. Overall, I think I'm gonna try to maybe make this project again and then share it with you guys over on Instagram but I wanted to give you an update on how this one turned out. Alrighty, so that was my IKEAX video for you guys today. I hope that you enjoyed this one and definitely give it a thumbs up if you did and if you are not already, make sure to follow me over on Instagram at Lone Fox Home because I post new content there every single day and kind of more behind the scenes type stuff on the actual stories. I do polls for you guys. It's a lot of fun over there so definitely follow along over there but I hope today's video gave you maybe a little bit of creative energy. Head over to IKEA, make some similar items but yeah, thank you guys so much for watching and I hope you have an amazing Sunday or the amazing start to your week if you're watching this on Monday or Tuesday or even Wednesday and I will catch you guys all in my next video. I don't want to leave but I got you so, I'll catch you in the next one. Bye guys.


USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Normandy recently joined other U.S. forces in conducting maritime security operations in the Arabian Sea. The U.S. Navy has increased its presence in this area as a result of the current instability in Yemen. USS McFall departed Norfolk on April 22 for an independent deployment as part of the ongoing mission to preserve regional security and protect the global flow of trade. Summer is coming and it's almost time to make the switch to our Dress Whites. Make sure your uniform is ready. Visit the uniform shop early and have your uniforms cleaned and the proper insignia sewn on. Be sure to check out the uniform regulations on the Navy Personnel Command website to stay up to date with changes. For these stories and more, visit navy.mil.


What's going on everyone say I'm here with late in sports cards from a 22 penini flawless football hobby 2 box full case break number 11 Random team style so look again at your random results as always you can find those on the website under the results tab as well as the link and chat Dan M. You got the Steelers up on top gonna scroll down one to Zachary. Oh with the Chargers So good luck everybody Let's do it What do you mean Eli like the guy's getting drafted or the rookies right now? Right now is a flowers is a dog. Oh, yeah, it's my guy dude What's up trash? It's been a minute trash. What's up, dude? Addison looks good, too Pukin a kua is really like a really Surprise absolute beast right now to think Pukin a kua is a stud. I only get it on Sundays lately Well, welcome on a Wednesday trash welcome on a Wednesday Good luck everybody. Let's do it. Whoa Whoa, whoa, whoa Some wildness going on right here Okay We've got a Alec Pierce to a 15 going to the Colts nice one there There is a little bit of Schmeck on there We got Get an empty box and wrapper to the Colts. I don't know what happened there Nice one here going to the Jets Brett farf that is one of 15 to color to color Player Warren Brett farf as a New York jet Going to the Rams 8 of 20 Torrey Holt. Yeah, I guess that's fair bet We've got nice one here 12 at 25. That is an RPA of Kyle Pitts Congrats on that Atlanta Erin picking up a spot in the next break. You've got Daniel picking up spot left side serial numbers Thank you guys appreciate that very much. You can back this up. It's I would say Going to the Vikings one of five Kirk oh chains. That's uh Kirk Cousins.  So that'll be a random between Philly and To the Eagles is Stefan B and then the Rams is Timothy F. See how that'll be a random right there.  You couldn't act as well as well Congrats to the Titans. Nice one there Malik Willis. All right, we're gonna start off with a Roger Staubach 9 of 20 Going to the Cowboys Nice one there Dallas Yeah, it's an update Kyle Pitts update We've got how about five of five Derek Henry on the cleat card Claire Warren cleat card of Derek Henry That is sick man like that That's really close part of the Nike swoosh. It looks like as well from the sides Five of five Derek Henry That's cool Dan Malik came to his daughter school this week to visit with the elementary school really that's really cool That's awesome. Andre six of 20 Brock Purdy rookie debut signatures One two three Purdy's on the day everybody Congrats on that good stuff going to Andre K with the San Francisco 49ers That'll work right there Kase going on to number two now here It's the matter colonel Yeah, they do there's some game you stuff in here It is Purdy mania today Yes, it isn't up yet Going on to number eight right here. Yeah, we're after Kirk Yeah, oh base not started out nice right here We go you're gonna like one here Let's go that is gonna be a Gino Smith 9 of 15.  Oh We've got nice one here is gonna be a Justin Herbert Austin Eckler Keenan Allen 17 of 20 That is player Warren Herbert and Eckler game used on the Allen ice. Oh, that's sick, dude One of three going to the Broncos. How about a Javante Williams Nike swoosh patch auto? Player warn Javante one of the Cowboys three of five Cliff Harris is a Sean box right here Cliff Harris for the Cowboys We've got Hall of Fame signatures 10 of 20 of 15 Jason Taylor for the Dolphins. That's Miami It's gonna do a Paul. I believe that Paul L. Oh We've got three of 25 that is gonna be a champ Bailey distinguished patch auto player worn champ for the Broncos and Hey, we hit it one time person back. Let's go. Oh, dude. We were paid out now Dan Marino 19 of 20 distinguished Jersey auto for the Dolphins player warned and the man Rats on that Jets lesion Jason Taylor All right, we got John Dotson 9 of 15. That's going to the commanders rookie gem signature I know Jake we just hit our Bat Jake 23 at 25 Joe Namath player worn three card patch for the Jets and Go into the Niners one of three Jerry Rice flawless greats auto nice rice Right there All right. Got a quick random to do everybody empty case. Thanks again for filling this up before we do the random Let me drop you guys the link to the next one. We are at just 12 to go on number 12 12 on 12 guys 12 on 12 All right quick random is gonna be for the dick vermel eagles and rams 12 of 15 Cuz you can keep it and you can like lock it if you want Gold yeah All right, I don't know. I'm sorry Shane. I'm sorry Shane. It's rolled the dice I feel so bad dude 10 times on the vermel 1 2 3 4 5 4 5 6 7 8 9 and Weathers on top on this one. We'll get the card 10 is the rams rams picking that one up the dick vermel Do a quick random here? Yes, rams got it. We had the quad or the triple for the Raiders Gino Smith Derek Henry cleat Brett Favre Alec Pierce Dan marina champ Bailey Jason Taylor Cliff Harris Javante Williams Kirk Cousins Tory Holt are encased stuff. We had a Joe Namath Roger Stalback Johan Dotson Jerry Rice the three Kyle Pitts to 25 Malik Willis to 25 and Brock Purdy to 20 That will do it for the break. Thank you guys again for the fill up next number 12