simple Analogy

Right Where I Am

Dear Mom,

This was a different kind of Mother's Day for you.  And for me.  The word cancer is so scary to hear, but it breaks my heart to associate it with you.  This is what is known as "ugly beautiful".  It's not something nice or even something that we would have chosen, but it is the gift that we have been given.  God has some very special purpose for entrusting you with it.  

One of my favorite songs says...

I could tune my ear to a bitter song, or choose hope's melody,

Curse the ground that I'm standing on, or pray for dancing feet.

I could shout at Heaven when rain pours down

Pounding hard on me, 

Or I can cup my hands and drink of Him.

Whatever this life brings-

 

He is good, though I may not understand.

He is good...

I give thanks right where I am.

So I am choosing to be purposefully thankful, to give thanks right where I am for the ugliness of this new journey of yours (and therefore ours) and the beauty that I know it will bring along with it.  For every crack in the road, and the beauty that I am already seeing through it...

• I heard your love for me in your mother's heart when you were nervous to tell me there was a potential health concern, and yet waited until I got home from driving in a monsoon so I wouldn't be on the road when you told me.
• I watched your hands shake when you heard the news.  I saw your blood pressure high as we entered the doctor's office.  It showed me you were not superwoman, and yet panic did not take over.  Your faith did.
• I've seen you receive so much love from the people you've poured your life into.  Some who were not always easy to love, and yet you did love them because it was the right thing to do - the thing God was calling you to do.
• I witnessed you unselfishly reaching out to comfort others when you should have been the one being comforted. 
• I've seen dad anxious eyed and tight lipped because he loves you and is worried for you, and yet he is trusting God right along with you.
• I traced God leading you up to this point in your life just within the last month.  Giving you exactly what you would need to get you through the shock of it all.  You are still seeking His face.
• I have seen a gift card for lunch, beautiful flowers, friends waiting in the waiting room, encouraging texts/calls, and a meal made with love on your table on the busiest (and scariest) appointment day.
• I have heard sweet prayers on your behalf.

But the thing I am most thankful for is the honor of being with you through all of it.  Of caring for you and helping you remember the questions you wanted to ask and what it was the doctor said.  It IS an honor to be with you and help you through this.  A high honor.

Love,

Heather

Fabric Tassel

Remember this diaper clutch from a while back?  Well, it was time to wrap it up for the baby shower.  I  use craft paper bags all the time and dress them up with fabric.  This time I decided to make a fabric tassel to attach to the handle.  Can you say stashbuster?! 

Just pull out all those scrap strips.  You'll need about 10-15 strips of fabric about 1 inch wide and at least 18 inches long.  I tore my strips to make a rugged edge.

Stack all but two of the strips and find the middle.

Fold one of the extra strips in half and run through the middle of the stacked fabrics.

Wrap the last strip around the tassel just underneath the folded edge and tie in a knot.  Cut close to the knot.

Brush through your tassel to straighten the strips.

Cut with scissors or a rotary cutter to straighten the tassel.

There you go!  Now tie it onto a bag or whatever you'd like to decorate with it.

Two Winners

Before I announce the stamped necklace giveaway winner, I have reached some conclusions based upon all the comments I've received over the last week...

You girls are awesome out there!  You love love love your families.  You love your mothers. You love your sisters and your friends.  And no it's not selfish to want to keep a stamped necklace for yourself.  I only wished I could give one of these to each of you.

Rachel M. will be receiving a custom stamped necklace in the mail very soon!  She said, "This would be a gift to my sister-in-law who has moved near us to just be a part of ours and our 4 childrens' lives. She's such a blessing and help to us! It think it would be awesome to give her an "auntie" necklace with the kiddos names. Thanks for participating!"

Leslie who said, "I would sew one for myself and a whole bunch for baby showers. :-)" will be receiving the On-The-Go Diaper Clutch Pattern in her inbox!

Thank you all for joining me for this giveaway!  Have a wonderful weekend and a very happy Mother's Day!

Diaper Clutch Pattern Giveaway

***Giveaway Closed***

Giveaway number two...

On-The-Go Diaper Clutch PDF pattern.

This PDF download sewing pattern will walk you through making a diaper clutch perfect for short outings! Sew up your diaper clutch, slip in a pack of travel size wipes and a few diapers, and you're ready for a short jaunt to the library to pick up books. In the middle of potty training? Throw in a few pull-ups or undies and a pair of pants, and you're ready to pick up the siblings from school. 

If you're dependent on a diaper bag, stay organized by using it to keep all the changing items together and handy. No more digging around in the bottom of the bag for a diaper! Just grab the diaper clutch!


Pattern Information:  20 page PDF download with detailed instructions accompanied by lots of pictures to help you along the way.  Includes instructions for a basic clutch plus four customizable options.

Skill Level: Beginner and up.

Giveaway information:

• To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below telling me who you'd be sewing this diaper clutch for.
• Make sure to leave your email address in the comment so that I have a way to contact you if you are the winner.
• Only one entry per person!  Any duplicate entries will be deleted.
• The giveaway will be open until May 10, 8PM CST.
• A random winner will be notified by email with the pattern attached and announced in a followup post on May 11th.

Good luck!

For those of you who do not win, the On-The-Go Diaper Clutch pattern and completed clutches can be found in my ETSY SHOP.

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For more great giveaways check out all the following giveaway categories on Sew, Mama, Sew:

Sewing and Craft Supplies

Handmade Baby and Kid Items

Handmade for the Home

Handmade Bags

Handmade Accessories

Custom Stamped Necklace Giveaway

***Giveaway Closed***

Yay! It's GIVEAWAY DAY!  There are a lot of great giveaways linking up with Sew, Mama, Sew today, and I'm joining in the fun.

I showed you the tools that I was working with last week, and this week it's time to show you my new offering in the SHOP...

Custom stamped necklaces!  Different from the necklaces you see all over blogland, these are made using antiqued brass elements.  I love the vintage look of brass, and yet it's still very modern and goes with EVERYTHING!

The pendant can be custom stamped with up to about four names.  The pendant itself is 1 inch in diameter and is adorned with a freshwater pearl.  The ball chain necklace is 18 inches long.

What better way to introduce you to a new product, than to give one away!

Giveaway information:

•  To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below telling me who this necklace would be for -  your mom (after all Mother's Day is right around the corner), grandma, sister, friend, teacher, or maybe a treat for yourself - and why you would give it to them.
• Make sure to leave your email address in the comment so that I have a way to contact you if you are the winner.
• Only one entry per person!  Any duplicate entries will be deleted.
• The giveaway will be open until May 10, 8PM CST.
• A random winner will be notified by email and announced in a followup post on May 11th.
• If the winner has not replied to the confirmation email by Monday, May 13, a new winner will be chosen.

Good luck!

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For more great giveaways check out all the following giveaway categories on Sew, Mama, Sew:

Sewing and Craft Supplies

Handmade Baby and Kid Items

Handmade for the Home

Handmade Bags

Handmade Accessories

Tip for Using Metal Stamps

I've been using metal stamps to make jewelry for quite a while now.  I bought my first set of 2.4 mm stamps a few years ago.  I bought them from an industrial supplier online (sorry don't even remember the name of the place) because they were cheaper than buying the same set through a jewelry supplier.  These stamps came in a wooden box with individual holes for storage, and each stamp had a thumb groove.

What is the thumb groove for?  So that you know that the stamp is being held correctly for stamping. There's nothing worse than stamping a charm and getting a letter sideways or upside down because you weren't paying attention to the way you were holding it.  Scrap that!  Start over!  The thumb groove solves a lot of that sort of frustration.  If you're thumb is resting in the groove when your holding the stamp, hammer away!  It's in the right position.

I bought a 2 mm set recently from Hobby Lobby.  I was so happy with the price, but immediately noticed I would be having problems!  No thumb groove.  I could foresee disaster in my stamping future, so I took a few minutes that will save me time and money in the future...

I took each stamp out individually and oriented it to the correct stamping position.  Then with a sharpie marker made a little dot on the side my thumb would be holding. (Sorry for the snarly fingernail there!  Can you say hangnail?)  Now when I use these stamps I just need to look for the dot, and I'm good to go!

Next week I'll show you what I've been doing with these stamps!  And P.S. there will be a giveaway involved and a new offering in the SHOP!

May Kid's Craft Along: Geometric Necklace

I know you want to celebrate MOM on Mother's Day, and this month's craft will help you do just that!  Give her a fun necklace to wear this summer...

Supplies: 

24 inch ball and chain necklace

10 wooden beads (mine were 3/4 inch in diameter)

acrylic paint

painter's tape (washi tape will work too)

Directions:  Can be found HERE.

Suggestion:

When wrapping the tape around the beads, make sure to lay the tape down smoothly and press down tightly against the bead.  You don't want any ripples or bumps along the edge of the tape or else you won't get a nice crisp edge.

I'd love to see your version!  Add pictures to the Kid's Craft Along flickr group or #kidscraftalong on Instagram.

Painting with Children

I sure have gotten a lot of mileage out of our rain painting project from this month's Kid's Craft Along project.  Rain painting turned out to be a hit!  I personally had a great time with it, not to mention being able to use it with several groups of children.

I used the process to "paint" Fiji soft coral with 30 children during AWANA.  Turns out that telling children to scribble with markers on their paper is so foreign to them that they just look at you like you're crazy! "You want me to scribble?  Are you nuts?"  I could hear it going through their heads.  I guess that's because the minute they can hold a crayon or marker, we teach them to "stay in the lines".  Then I turn around and tell them to let loose and make a mess on their paper.  After a few of them tried it, it was quite freeing.  Anyway, the process worked fine, but the execution was not as stellar as I had hoped.  I bought a cheaper brand of watercolor paper for the AWANA group, and the colors just didn't spread quite like I wanted them to.

Note:  The more "toothed" (or textured for you non-watercolor people) the paper, the better the result.

Lesson learned for round two... I bought good watercolor paper for my next painting adventure.  Once a month our church cooks a meal for the Ronald McDonald House.  After making banana pudding (and leaving Landon, my banana pudding cooking partner, to whip up three quarts of whipping cream) I set up a craft table for the children staying there to rain paint.  We started out doing a Fiji soft coral painting, and then I let them do whatever they wanted.  And they wanted!  Their little shaved heads bent close over their work, the children kept asking to do another and another.  Toward the end we were cutting up the little bit of watercolor paper I had left into smaller pieces so that we could keep painting.  It's such a surprise to watch what each squirt of the water bottle brings.

I was hoping to be a blessing to these children, but I was the one who was blessed!

Multicultural Crafts For Kids: Fiji

Today's craft makes me want to head west to the Pacific Ocean!

FIJI

Known as a hotspot for snorklers and divers, Fiji has some of the best diving in the world.  Jacques Cousteau called it "the soft coral capital of the world".  It is the pinks, purples, oranges, reds, and yellows of the soft coral that make the waters of Fiji so beautiful.

source

Supplies: 

picture of Fiji soft coral (above) or google "fiji soft coral" for more images

watercolor paper

WASHABLE markers (very important that they are washable)

spray bottle

pencil

paper towels

Directions:

Using a picture of Fiji soft coral, lightly pencil in the outline of the coral onto your watercolor paper.

Shade in your drawing with markers.

Lightly mist the drawing with a spray bottle and watch the colors blend and run together.  The more water you use, the more the colors will run together and the longer it will take to dry.  So use the water sparingly. 

Let dry completely.  It should only take about 10 minutes or so for it to dry if you only did a light mist of water.  If you used more water, it will take longer to dry.   

You will get brighter colors if you let the painting air dry completely, but if you're crunched for time you can remedy a too wet painting by dabbing it gently with paper towels to remove excess water.  Doing this will pull some of the color off, and the colors of the painting will not be quite as bright as in this example.

Options:

If you want to take it a step further, cut small fish out of bright orange paper, and glue them to your painting.

Extra Activity:

Color a Fiji flag.

Multicultural Crafts for Kids: Orkney Islands

The Orkney Islands are located just to the northeast off the mainland of Scotland.  One of the most interesting things about the Orkney Islands is the weather, particularly the wind.  

 wind speed for an average summer 8 - 18 MPH

wind speed for an average winter 25 - 45 MPH

occasionally they receive gale bursts of over 90 MPH

That's a lot of wind!  Just to give you a comparison, here in Houston, Texas, our average wind speed for the entire year is only 6 - 9 MPH.

Orkney Islands

In tribute to the Scottish heritage of the Orkney Islands and their mighty winds, let's make a Scottish tartan pinwheel.

Supplies:

6 x 6 inch square of scrapbook paper (one side white, one side a solid color)

thumbtack

washi tape (colorful paper tape)

pencil

markers

Directions:

Wrap a small piece of washi tape over the top of your thumbtack and press to the back.

Wrap a pencil with washi tape.

On the white side of your paper, make a tartan pattern following the numbered pictures.

1.  Thin red vertical lines

2.  Thick green vertical lines

3.  Two thin red horizontal lines close together

4.  Medium lime green horizontal lines

5.  Thick red horizontal lines

Draw an x from corner to corner on the colored side of your paper square.

Cut each line of the x  until you are about 1/2 inch from the middle of the x.

Fold the right corner of each edge into the center making sure the pieces overlap each other a little.

Insert the thumbtack into the center of all the overlapped corners.

Press the pinwheel into the eraser of your pencil leaving a little space between the eraser and the back of the pinwheel so that it will be able to spin.

Go find some wind (or make your own) and have some pinwheel fun!

Options:

I wanted the children to make their own tartan pattern, but to save time buy tartan scrapbook paper.

Extra Activity:

Color the Scottish flag.