Family Picture Rejects and Tutorial Sneak Peak

I'm half done!!! 

SOME people in the family thought this would be funny for a Christmas picture and SOME people did not (hint: grumpy faces).

Eventually it was decided NOT to include THESE pictures.  

SOME people have no imagination!!! 

This one, however, was included on the Christmas card :).  She's just too darn cute and such a stinker too!! 

Nadia - officially four and doing more grown up things now too!!! 

Daddy's little princess.  Not the only - that's for sure 

(I know Aleana will be reading this too!!).

And of course...we can't forget Madilyn. She has to be included with her Dad - especially since she has him wrapped around her little finger!!  

FYI - Nadia is wearing her "dancing dress up" outfit.  

She loves her tutus!!  

Nadia's 4th Birthday!! Yoghurt Yuk & Sneak Peak!!!

"I am so happy that I'm finally four!!"

"Too bad Mom didn't have an lighters to light the candle, but this icing sure tastes good!"

"Celebrating my birthday with my two best friends!!" 

The excitement was uncontrollable. 

"I got a princess dress!!"

"Thank you Grandma and Grandpa - What shall I do with my magic wand?"

Here are the other princesses.  

They are very happy to be joining in the festivities. 

"hay, Hay!!!  Where's my pudding?"

"My happiness is starting to wane...."

"Especially when Ethan pulls off stunts like this..."

"Or Mom wants to have a special moment with me - bah!!"

"Ohhhh I do like kisses though!"

"Ummmm this looks interesting - of the clothing variety - good good."

"A crown!!  Exactly what I wanted!!"  

Just to let you know we are only "slightly" promoting the princess bug here :). 

So...I was putting groceries away and this little stinker got into the yoghurt.  

It was already her second pair of pants for the day so why not a whole new outfit?  

"And what's that you say Mom?  This is bad but don't move because you are going where?  Ohhhh to get the camara.  Shall I smile?  No?  I'm a bad girl and you are taking a picture? Shall I smile Mom?  No? What's that?  This is bad? Yoghurt mess is bad?"  

This is earlier in the first set of pants.  Will thought it was cute that Madilyn and I had similar clothes on for the day - totally unplanned!! She looks confused and I look slightly amused - what a funny pair!!  

I started to work with this jelly roll today.  I love the colors and I know exactly where it's going once it's done!!  I am "winging" the design.  With all the geometrics I think it will look great with a spinning kaleidoscope effect.  I'll try to take pictures along the way so that if it works out I can make it into a mini tutorial.   

Have a great weekend in God's care.  

Indian Blanket Quilt - All Bound Up!!

I was really happy with the binding that I chose.  The black and white really brought the whole thing together and looked great with the backing.  

I hesitated about giving this one away because of all the mistakes.  People who receive something handmade don't see it the same way as the one who crafted it.  We see all the errors and they just see the beauty and the love behind it.  The recipient of this quilt said she would love and cherish it which is the reaction I was hoping for - but unsure about.  Thank our LORD Jesus Christ that our Father is not as fussy with me as I am with my quilts.  Because of Jesus, He sees me as beautiful despite all my despicable traits.  What a blessing!! !  That's the way quilting is for me every time - a journey into humbleness. 

I just did easy quilting up and down shadowing the triangles.  If it weren't for the five rows that I had to pick out it would have been fantastic - but isn't that the way it always goes for me - like I was saying...

All in all I really enjoyed learning about how to properly sew triangles and if you head on over to 

www.stitchedincolor.com you can learn more about my teacher and her other courses.  I think she is offering another one in the Spring.  I love this lady for her lovely way with words and her love for crafty colored inspirations that will motivate you to be unique.

Running Scared

Warning: Not for the faint of heart!! 

With Halloween behind us, I breathe a sigh of relief.  I'm glad it's over.  Every year, my middle children struggle with their ever increasing desire for all things candy and their desire to follow the light.  One of our ministers from here in the Fraser Valley wrote a lovely excerpt on why we shouldn't be joining in on Halloween and for those from here I'm not going to re-iterate everything.  EXCEPT for a few more personal reasons that he wouldn't have mentioned because a) he is not a woman b) I am more than a decade older than him and c) he did not have my upbringing.   

So for starters when we were kids things were tamer.  They really were.  Everyone celebrated Halloween in our circles of church and school.  Raising a child in the post-immigrant era would I have allowed the same thing for my children? Our parents claim that it was just for fun and there were no skeletons and tomb stones and zombies back then. It was dress up and candy. I can understand those reasons.  Some parents find it hard (as my own mother did) why the new generation will not allow trick or treating and what all the fuss is about.  I think there needs to be some understanding on both sides.  We need to understand their decisions back then were made in a certain time, with limited knowledge (ie: no internet access) and more innocence.  Maybe I'm "candy" coating it too much but I am trying to think the best of them and their decisions.  

Now, they need to meet us in the middle and understand the seriousness of messing with darkness, celebrating death, and anything that reeks of such things.  

We are children of the light - here is a text which showed me that watching CSI (the only tv show I watched for a few years) was not good for my soul.  

" For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the LORD.  Walk as children of light for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the LORD.  And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.  For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.  But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.  Therefore He says: 

"Awake, you who sleep, 

Arise from the dead, 

and Christ will give you light." (cf: Isaiah 26:19)

(Ephesians 5:8-14 NKJV))   

I am sad at all the evil that I was exposed to by watching it, I learned things about the evil in the world that I really didn't need to know about.  Being a child of the light does give us a certain innocence that we do well to maintain as it will create a light that will make those in the darkness uncomfortable.  That uncomfortable feeling will either change their hearts to Him or totally turn them off.  That's part of God's providence.   

One last thing- thanks for reading this far! -  the picture above can be scary or it can be beautiful.  It really depends on how you look at it.  If you look at from the eyes of light you can see God's hand in His creation and how He creates beauty in the darkness.  To me, it's something that represents my fears, something from a nasty nightmare where I'm being chased.  You see, I've struggled with nightmares and night terrors my whole life.   As a hypersensitive person I can sense evil in every form.  It is a gift and it is a curse but I can chose which it is. I can chose to look at that picture and not be scared. I can chose to see the light shining in the darkness.  God wants me to.  He wants me to hold onto that little bit of light and He wants me to see Him there.   

We had a sermon several years ago and it really helped me put my fear of the dark into perspective.  God created the dark.  He is in control of it and it is HIS.  He is not one on one with Satan fighting over the world.  NO!!  He is OVER Satan, foreseeing everything.  He is in the dark and He is there with us.  Does that mean that I am "over it"?  No, I still struggle.  I still leave the lights on to sleep if my husband is not home.  Why turn them off if I don't have to?  Then, I curl up and sing this verse to myself, to my children and to the LORD.  

" I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety" (Psalm 4:8  NIV)

I may run scared but He runs ahead of me and He will always prepare the Way for me!! (I was never a very good runner anyway). 

Thanksgiving Cake?

For thanksgiving we celebrated Will's parent's 45th wedding anniversary.  

The cake was gorgeous - from T and T.  

Aleana and I redecorated the "rec room" over the summer and made it a teen room.  

Here are the curtains we bought for it.   The walls are a light purple in case you can't tell.  

We also did a turkey dinner - 20 people over.  

Nadia is making cranberry sauce here - I have to say, pretty much every child had a hand in making the meal.  It was a blessing to have all that help!!  

All the descendants placed a fingerprint on the tree.  Really neat crafty idea for a gift!! 

I've been sewing some scrappy trip blocks up.  

And I wanted to see how it would look.  I have two more blocks to go!!! 

I'm not sure about this configuration - I placed all the orange blocks on the bottom and purple on the top.  Should I maybe mix it up instead?  

I bought backing for my Indian blanket quilt.  Will was there and since he knows that it is his duty to encourage me in all things quilty he insisted that this print would look nice.  When I got home - I thought " I wonder what the teacher used for hers ?"  and I looked it up on her blog.  Lo and behold!!  She used the exact same fabric (from ikea) and even used it for her feature fabric.  Did I maybe remember that somewhere in my subconscious?  Will was the one picking it out though so it's all just very wierd and we'll leave it at that :).  

My Indian blanket top is all sewn up and ready to be spray basted and quilted!!!  

I have a personal deadline so hopefully I can get it done by then!!

Have a great week in God's Almighty hands.  

Rejoice!

Now that my nursing days are done I have had more time to invest in other projects.  Like this chore chart system for instance, needed to go through 3 revisions before we came to this one, yet I like the color codes because then we switch it up every month.  So far all the work of implementing them has paid off. 

I was also inspired by my sister to buy (only $25!!) from Ikea this shoe rack - it opens up on an angle and is an excellent storage system for supper time Bibles and Psalm books.  Loving it!!! 

Madilyn is right in there with Nadia now at craft time. 

This was my "almost done, I just have to see it!" version of the Indian Blanket quilt. 

When I was done the last complex row I switched things up to this version but I knew it still wasn't right. 

In the end, I was most happy with the heavy, darker colors on the bottom.  And..I fixed the blue 6 inch row and seperated the two darker blues.  I'm not super crazy about how it looks.  I'm hoping once I quilt it I will like it better.  The sewing on the other hand is probably the neatest , straightest I have ever done so for that I am thankful.

I was going to throw this out - but thought I would share it first.  

It's from VBS - Matthew made it.  The plaque is too heavy for the magnet and won't stay up on the fridge.  It's beautiful. 

 I finally found something to decorate the kitchen wall with!!!  

I really love it!!!  My Mom cross-stitched a magnet with the same verse - it's on my fridge.  

Joshua 24;15. 

"Without change, there would be no butterflies". -  unknown

Straight open pressed seams just waiting to be joined and quilted together!!  

"Hi Mom!"

"AHHH Mom!"

Lots of things to be rejoicing about. 

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. "

Matthew 11:28

"Praise be to the LORD, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens."  Psalm 68:19