some more quiet book pages

Slowly but surely I am getting these pages done. I still have enough material for a couple more pages but I don't know if they will get done in time or not.

These are awful photos, I apologize. Also these are my two messiest pages. I am trying to go too fast to get them done. Oh well. William will care more about what they do than what they look like.

So this page is to teach him how to button and unbutton things. The balloons are attached to the present so I don't have to worry about losing pieces.

 This one is a marble maze. Wherever you see a line it is sewn. And the marble is in between the two pieces of fabric. So he works the marble from the top of the page to the bottom.

We Love Christmas-time!

Merry almost Christmas!

Today is exactly two weeks until Christmas. It's the most wonderful time of the year! I am enjoying all the Christmas music and counting all the Christmas lights with William everytime we drive somewhere. We are doing a few Christmas crafts and treats here and there, too. All the Christmas presents are bought and just a couple last touches to some homemade gifts. I just love Christmas!

We are just a week and a half away from our church's Christmas play. It is coming along so nicely. We are doing "A Peanut Butter Christmas" by Ron Hamilton. It's such a cute play that teaches the real reason for celebrating Christmas: Jesus. It's funny because I remember acting in that play at High Point when I was in 3rd grade.

We are in our time of darkness now. December 5th was the last day the sun rose. It was a beautiful sunrise at about 11:30 am. The sky was beautiful pink and  yellow and  orange! So pretty! It is now 11:30 am and it is dusk outside. It will get "light" out for a few hours but we won't see the sun. By next week we won't see any daytime at all but it quickly returns by January. Then on January 10th or so the sun will make a quick appearance. Then a little more and more each day. By April the sun will be up early and staying up past 9 pm. By mid June the sun will stay up all night. I love the midnight sun so much. It makes having dark winters not seem so bad.

So, the next time I see the sun will be January 11th in Philadelphia :-) just a month away!!!

Here's a couple photos. Merry CHRISTmas!!


Here was the last sunrise for 2013. The picture doesn't do it justice.

Some Christmas stockings I crocheted to sell

My Prayer Journal

I have found myself in the past year or so spending less and less time praying. I read my Bible and say a quick prayer before I start my day then I am off doing whatever it is that needs done that day. I have realized that in living that way I am completely relying on my own strength to be a godly mother, wife, friend, etc. No wonder I keep failing!

I have begun to read the book "The Burden Bearer" by Paul Chappell. I am only 70% through the book (I love how my kindle tells me that) and already the Lord has been changing my heart. I am realizing how little I actually give to the Burden Bearer and how much I attempt to carry all on my own! This led me to see how little time I put into prayer. And not just praying for the things I need but praying for other's needs as well.

So I found an old notebook we have had sitting around for years and started labeling the pages. The first page I put my family. I listed each member of my family and ways I need to pray for them. It's nice to have scripture references next to certain ones.  Some more examples of the pages I have are : missionaries, extended family, Facebook requests (after making this page I realized how often Facebook friends ask for prayer), Wednesday night prayer meeting requests, etc. These are just some of the ones I thought of. Anyway, it is amazing to see the Lord answering prayers. When I hear an answer to a prayer it's such a blessing. I have found it has caused me to start caring for other people, too, now that I am praying for them on a regular basis.

Well, I guess this sort of turned into rambling but I hope it has encouraged you to pray for others more. And to hand things over to our Burden Bearer instead of trying to handle things on our own.

Still Crafting

Sorry it has been so long since my last post! We got a new computer and it doesn't like my.camera so I couldn't get to my photos to put them on here. But I decided just to use my kindle and see if it works to post some of my latest projects from here!

 

First we have the kids' aprons I made for them. This isn't the best photo of the aprons, but it will have to do. The kids love baking with me, especially making bread (that's what they are doing in the photo). So I got an old apron of mine and cut it down to Williams size and put a batman logo applique on it. He's all about batman so he's thrilled with the apron :-) Then I took Will's apron and used it as a pattern for Jenna' s apron. Hers is much more girly with a pink heart with yellow polka dots and matching sash and ties.

Next is the next page in the quiet book. A telephone. I used ric-rac for the phone cord and under each button I put a little piece of a grocery bag. This makes the numbers poof a little bit and gives them a bit of a noise when you press it (not a loud noise though). 

And last I have the kids' mukluks. Will's aren't completely finished yet. I am still trying to find the right colors to make the tassles that will tie around the top (you can sort of see them on Jenna' s). These mukluks are traditional footwear. People wear them everywhere once the snow comes out. The sole is made of moose hide so it is thick and warm. The inside liner (which you can't see in these pictures) is made of duffle which is also nice and warm. I know these aren't the best photos because I am using my kindle, sorry. But if you want to see the mukluks up and close just come see us in PA in 67 days :-) 

Happy crafting everyone!

2nd and 3rd Quiet Book Pages

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. These two quiet book pages have been done for weeks but I haven't had internet at home so I couldn't post them up. But here they are!

Sorry, it would probably be nicer if the pictures were more up close, but oh well. First we have an outer space page. I used beads to make 'loops' for the space ship to fly under and over. The space ship is attached to the page using gimp. I have so much gimp from when I worked at Camp Sankanac. Anyway, originally I planned on having the string connected from one planet to the next but then decided Will might have more fun with it if it could fly wherever he wanted it to go. So, it is only connected to the first planet.

The next page is a football page. I made button holes up and down the football to loop the shoe lace on. I got the shoe lace for free :-) Haha...I am doing my best to make this book low cost. Anyway, I didn't sew the shoe lace in place. I still might, maybe just at the bottom loops. That way Will can loop it in and out, too. Then obviously, he can learn how to tie a bow using this page. 

Both these pages I just made up on my own. I didn't follow any pattern. My next page (a pirate page) I am following a pattern, though. Hopefully I will be posting that up soon for you all to see!

Before I finish off this post, I have to share a short story. Sunday morning one of my Sunday School students came up to me. He asked 'When the earth was created, God just said it right?' I said yes. He said "So, He just said it and it happened?' I said yes. Then he said, 'That book lied.' I asked him what book and he said he read that there were a bunch of rocks and dust and it exploded and the earth was created. Then he asked me why people would want to believe a lie. I told him some people just don't want to believe what God said.   It was so exciting. Knowing that we believe what we believe because that's what God said was enough for him. I guess this is the child like faith Christ spoke about. :-)

My First Quiet Book Page

I have been slowly working on my quiet book. This week I actually got 3 pages done but I will only share my first two for now. Before starting my quiet book I read a lot of blogs about them. I studied lots of designs and techniques and tried to decide what I liked and what I didn't like. I started with one that looked easy but very attractive and also very useful. I don't like the quiet book pages that don't have some sort of educational value...or at least something the kids can play with on it. I am not the greatest with my sewing machine but I like the way my first page turned out.

The page on the left is sewn to the white felt. The page on the right has a pocket (I cut up an old receiving blanket to use for the pocket) and holds the numbers that can be matched up to the numbers on the left side. The only thing I don't like about this is that the velcro on the back of the numbers attaches to the other numbers while in the pocket and makes it sort of pull at the felt numbers...makes it look a little frizzy. I think that it can be done without the velcro because really the felt sticks to felt pretty well. I did this all with the machine simply because I am too impatient to do it by hand :-)

Here is the link to where I got the free template for the numbers: FREE NUMBERS TEMPLATE

I haven't decided yet if I will sew all the pages together or three hole punch them and put into a binder. I just can't decide which way I like better. Yesterday I finished another page, a space ship page, which I will share with you soon. It still needs a couple embellishments. And my football page will be sewn up today or tomorrow. I really love making this quiet book because of the endless possibilities. I get ideas from pages then I can just do it however I like it. Have any of you looked into making a quiet book?? Let me know how it goes!