Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share our favorite things from the last week. This has been a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

1. A helpful clerk and discounts. I had a pretty nice shopping excursion last Friday. One place I went to was JoAnn’s Fabrics — I decided to sew one present. I know, I must be crazy to do so at this stage. But though lines were long, customers and staff were in fairly good spirits. I couldn’t decide between two fabrics, and found when I had the one cut that it was marked down several dollars — so I got both! 🙂 Then at the checkout, I didn’t have any coupons because our newspaper somehow didn’t contain their sales flyer, but the clerk tried keying the coupons and discounts in anyway — and saved me about $20.

2. Plaques for the sewing/craft room. Found these while at JoAnn’s:

3. Christmas programs at church and school. For me, those provide the times to sit down and really soak in what the season is all about. The children’s Christmas program at church was this past Sunday night, and though mine were all too old for it, I enjoyed seeing all the little ones tell the age-old story. Then the school’s Christmas program was Tuesday night, and Jesse’s choir sang. The funniest moment of the night was when, after the kindergarten class got done with their song, one let out a very loud, relieved sigh. Everyone chuckled, and at the end of the program the pastor said he felt like that sometimes when he got done preaching, and his listeners probably felt like sighing, too. 😀 And in both programs the littlest children had on the cutest costumes like footie pajamas in animals prints and accessories (ears, tale, etc.). They were so adorable!

4. Kids applying Scripture. It’s not unusual for me to bring up Scriptural principles when talking with my children, but I was blessed to hear Jesse bring up a pertinent Bible verse and apply it to a situation we were discussing and then again in a book report.

5. A new wreath. We can’t hang a wreath on our front door because it looks like this:

I know I could get one of those over-the-door hangers for one, but I just didn’t know if it would look right with the oval there, and the previous owners had installed a hook in the brick by the door which we’ve been using instead of door decorations. I had been wanting some kind of white wreath because I thought it would show up better against the brick, and I was delighted to see one designed by Charlotte Lyons in Amy Powers’ Inspired Ideas Christmas magazine (p. 26). I finally made it last night and finished it this morning, and I’m so delighted with it! Because everything is pinned in or tied on, it went fairly quickly.

I hadn’t wanted to sew and stuff the little dove, but I think I might — I think he’d show up a little better. I like the fuller, more collage-like look of hers — but I like this one, too. 🙂

Have a good weekend! We’re planning to finally get our tree tomorrow! It was raining buckets last weekend, and I haven’t looked at the forecast for tomorrow, but it’s bright out today and I hope it continues.

Laudable Linkage and Videos

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Barbara Harper

A weekly compendium of commendable sites to see

A Blogger’s Prayer. I need to read this regularly.

Teacher Gift Ideas for that last day of school before Christmas break. Or — for anyone if adapted a little bit. Skip To My Lou always comes up with great ideas for these.

The advice in Riding Out the Writer’s Storm by Laura could apply to bloggers as well.

How a writer can write a letter of inquiry.

3-D star ornament with a link to the pattern.

How to use Glossy Accents.

And, HT to Lisa, National Geography’s Photography Contest 2010. Warning — there is a nude one near the bottom. But other than that, some of these are awesome. This one particularly:

I wish I could get this Ducks vs. the Wind video to embed here. It’s very short, cute, and a little sad as a mama duck and her ducklings get literally bowled over by the wind. It just embodied the way we feel sometimes when circumstances are too much for us. I love the way she picked herself up and carried on afterward, though her feathers were more than a little ruffled.

It’s hard to wake up sometimes:

We’ve had Dancing With the Stars — why not Dancing With the Dogs? (HT to Susanne). This one has a lot of talent!

Hope you have a good day! We were planning to get our Christmas tree today, but it is raining a little bit — hope it dries up enough to get one!

Laudable Linkage

Posted on November 13, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Here’s my weekly round-up of riveting recommendations from ’round the Web. 😀

How to Encourage Missionaries During the Holiday Season.

From It was the best of NaNo; it was the worst of NaNo by Johnnie at Kindred Heart Writers I saw a link to the 100 Best First Lines from Novels as listed by the American Book Review. It was pretty interesting — I wonder how long some of these writers had to work to craft a compelling first sentence. Some of them, though, weren’t so compelling to me. Johnnie notes that eight of them start out with “It was…” — considered a major no-no these days because of its passivity, but to me, if what comes just after “It was…” captures your interest and attention, it’s fine. Most of the “It was..” openers were intensely more interesting than the first line to Robinson Crusoe and a few of the others.

Another on writing from Kindred Heart Writers: Self-Editing Tips from Jerry Jenkins.

I must try Chewy Peanut Butter Brownies, recommended by a friend on Facebook. Sounds right up my ally.

How to transfer an image to fabric with gel medium from How About Orange.

Some fall decorating ideas:

How to make leaf trivets from Martha Stewart

Leaf motifs for table linens from Martha Stewart

Maple leaf coasters by the long thread.

And for Christmas, awesomely cute Festive Felt Christmas Trees from allsorts.

And this was sent to me by my oldest son and made me smile for a long time. You can only use a play like this once, though!

Have a great Saturday! I have some mending and cleaning to do.

Laudable Linkage and Grandma’s Connected

Posted on October 23, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Just a few interesting things seen round the Web this week, then I have a fun poem I want to share with you.

Lisa shares 7 reasons why I still go to church. I have been thinking of writing a post about reasons to go to church, but this definitely hits the major ones.

Lisa also pointed me to this video of How (Not) to Invite Your Coworker to Church.

I have a sweater I love which is disintegrating in key places. I’ve been trying to figure out something to do to preserve and use it, and this purse made from a sweater might be just the thing.

This cupcake wrapper template to use with scrapbooking paper would be great theme parties or special occasions.

I’m not sure who the author of this poem is — I received it from the Good Clean Funnies List. I’m not a Grandma yet, and I hope to be a cookie-baking, book-reading Grandma, but I will definitely be a “connected” one, too! I’ve mused over at my mother-in-law’s assisted living place how those rooms might look when the connected generation gets into them.

Grandma’s Connected

In the not too distant past–
I remember very well–
Grandmas tended to their knitting
And their cookies were just swell.

They were always at the ready
When you needed some advice
And their sewing (I can tell you)
Was available–and nice.

Well Grandma’s not deserted you,
She dearly loves you still,
You just won’t find her cooking
But she’s right there at the till.

She thinks about you daily
You haven’t been forsook.
Your photos are quite handy
In her Pentium notebook.

She scans your artwork now, though,
And combines it with cool sounds
To make electronic greetings;
She prints pictures by the pounds.

She’s right there when you need her
You really aren’t alone.
She’s out now with her “puter” pals
But she took her new cell phone.

You can also leave a message
On her answering machine
Or page her at the fun meet
She’s been there since nine-fifteen.

Yes, the world’s a very different place,
There is no doubt of that,
So “E” her from her web page,
Or join her in a chat.

She’s joined the electronic age
And it really seems to suit her,
So don’t expect the same old gal,
’cause Grandma’s gone “Computer.”

Laudable Linkage

Posted on August 14, 2010 by Barbara Harper

I saw some great things around the Internet the last couple of weeks. Let me know if you find any of them useful!

Supernatural Love at Femina. We all need it. This is a great delineation of what it looks like, how to apply I Cor. 13 in everyday life. It’s geared toward moms, but of course the chapter and many of the principles listed could be applied in multitudes of ways.

Strength For a Weary Mom at girltalk.

Defining Success as a Parent at The M.O.B. Society. I love this site! I wish there had been something like it when my guys were small.

Confession Is Not Propitiatory at My Two Cents. It’s not how hard we confess that appropriates our forgiveness. Amen.

Thinking About Immigration Missiologically at MissioMishmash.

Davis Bunn and Writer’s Conferences. Maybe some day…

And on the crafty front:

Gifts Bags From Newspapers.

And a neat idea for storing fabric (HT to Lizzie).

And a couple of funnies from icanhascheezburger.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Have a great Saturday!

Laudable Linkage and Funny Videos

Posted on July 17, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Just a few links this week:

For the Young Mother: Ministry, Guilt, and Seasons of Life.

Why So Critical? Excellent thoughts on the difference between judgmentalism and discernment — too often people ignore the latter thinking it is the former.

How To Find a Job (Yes, Even Now). Thought this had some creative ideas.

Summertime Pest Control: round-up of home-made remedies for getting rid of pests.

Root Beer Float Cake. Looks.So.Good.

Crafty stuff:

Spring Hats Pincushion. SO cute! Makes me wish I were planning another ladies’ luncheon to use these as favors. 🙂
Crafting with Kid’s Prints by Karla Dornacher…but not just for kids, I think. Good tutorial on making a simple plaque.
Tutorial for making covered buttons.
Paper roses.
Charlotte Lyons’ Spring Stitching — so pretty. I’d like to make a sampler like this.
“Sweet Menagerie” Nine Patch Quilt. Maybe someday….
How to make a thread rack.
Bird in the House.
How to hand quilt.

I keep having to remind myself of this in this season of sorting and discarding while preparing to move. My boys love this:

This is a take-off on those hilarious Old Spice commercials.

I almost listened to this when trying to think up “Momisms” yesterday to see if I had forgotten any — I wish I had, I forgot plenty!

Happy Saturday!

“Where Bloggers Create” Party

Posted on June 21, 2010 by Barbara Harper

I posted way back on April 29 that I learned via Quill Cottage about a Where Bloggers Create party to be given June 19 at My Desert Cottage in which bloggers could show their creative space, whether a room or a corner or a table. Some great prizes from Jo Packham of the Where Women Create magazines and books are being given as well.

And then I forgot about it!

And then we found out we were moving, so I pretty much stopped working on it both because it was all going to be moved anyway plus now I have other packing and sorting to do.

But then the creative space of the first party participant I looked at was not at all “picture perfect,” so I thought I might join in after all.

It is functional enough to use — I’ve made a few things in here — but I still don’t have all my “stuff” in here yet and don’t have it all organized and have very little on the walls.

But here is what I have so far.

This is the view from the door. I probably would not have chosen dark blue walls if I were starting from scratch — I probably would have painted them creamy white like Anita‘s. But we had just redone this room for Jason a few years ago, and the paint was in fine shape, so we left it. As it turns out, I really love the way the pink and white look against the blue. I don’t know if I’ll paint the craft room in the new house this color — we’ll have to see. At least I am pretty sure I will have a craft room — we might have to combine it with an office. We’re still house-hunting (I’d appreciate your prayer for that! We want to get in and settled before Jesse’s school starts.)

Anyway, back to the room. One thing I neglected to take a photo of were the studio lights Jason asked for when we redecorated his room, but they were very helpful in aiming the lights at the different work areas.

This is where I do my paper crafting or anything that needs table space:

As you can tell, I don’t have my little shelves filled up and organized yet. Some day… But I like having most everything within reach. My Cricut and Cuttlebug cartridges are in the pink file boxes below the table, and the floral file box…

…contains my scrapbooking and craft papers:

This little drawer set sits just to my left..

…and holds various tools and supplies, like my decorative scissors..

…punches…

…ribbons and trims…

I will probably separate those into different color families at some point, but for now I love to just rummage through them all.

This bookcase holds all my craft books as well as some decorative things that will go other places in the room some day. When I get those decorative things off the shelves, they will then probably hold more supplies.

I should have straightened that photo!

To the right there you see some things that will some day go on the walls.

This is the sewing area:

I really need to change that Holly Hobby red sewing machine cover! I’ve used this old desk for sewing for years, and it works fine except when excess fabric wants to slide off the left side of the table, so that’s why I put my pink file cabinet with craft and sewing booklets and clippings there — it provides a little extra surface area.

This shelf above the sewing area has a few decorative sewing-related items:

Continuing to move around the room, this wall is…the unfinished area. 🙂

The plan was to put a futon there, both so overnight guests would have a place to sleep and I might have a comfortable place to sit and do hand sewing or look through one of the books, or for my husband or kids to have a place to sit if they came up while I was working on something. We haven’t gotten one yet, and I need for that very old computer of Jason’s to be carted off somewhere.

Finally, this is the partially organized closet:

Some of those boxes contain gift bags, photos, mementos, stamps, etc.

This is one little project sitting out that has been awaiting a frame for a long time. It’s a good reminder!

This sign is still on the door.

My middle son, Jason put it there back when he started packing up some of his things from his room shortly before he got married. It didn’t really hit until I saw all those boxes that he was actually leaving, though I’d known it for months, and I got a little teary. My husband said, “Think sewing room!” and Jason put the sign up as an encouragement that I’d get to use the room for fun stuff after he was gone. 🙂

So there you have it, such as it is! You can find many more finished creative spaces at the party post at My Desert Cottage here. I’m looking forward to being inspired and getting some neat ideas.

In addition to the prizes offered at My Desert Cottage, Hydrangea Home is offering a prize of a $50 certificate from her store for party-goers:

Laudable Linkage and Good Ol’ Cory

Posted on May 1, 2010 by Barbara Harper

“Winter is many months of the year
But now at last Maytime is here…”

~ Veronica Ann Twells

Wow — it’s May already! I do feel bad for some of you who are still experiencing winter weather. Spring will come again! Some time!

I’m just going to list some of the interesting things I saw this last week with little commentary.

Author Robin Lee Hatcher writes about the personal story of being married to an alcoholic which contributed to her book Beyond the Shadows.

Tim Challies: Read More, Read Better, and how he reads a book.

The Superior Wife Syndrome.

A Crazy Idea For a Missions Trip.

My big, but partial, list of pregnancy and baby musings.

Miss Whitebread Was Wrong, HT to Challies.

Balancing Writing and Family.

A Free Motion Quilting tutorial.

Sometimes a little laughter is good medicine, and I had a good dose the other night watching some clips from the old TV show Boy Meets World. I can’t condone everything on the show (we veered away when they talked about “make-out parties”), but it roped me in the first episode I saw (“The Play’s the Thing”) when young Cory was being a brat and having to suffer the consequences rather than having everything work out in his favor. Imagine, what a concept for TV! 🙂 The writing and the relationships were generally very clever, and the casting and acting spot on. Here are a couple of favorites:

Where Bloggers Create party!

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Barbara Harper

I just learned via Quill Cottage about a Where Bloggers Create party to be given June 19 at My Desert Cottage. You can show your creative space, whether a room or a corner or a table, and there are some great prizes from Jo Packham of the Where Women Create magazines and books.

I think this will motivate me to get my new craft room in order! I have some things set up in it, but need to finish. After all the activities of spring….and the ladies’ luncheon….hopefully I can dig in and fine tune it.

Crafty goodness and contests

Posted on April 24, 2010 by Barbara Harper

There is something about seeing what other people are creating that inspires me, even if I don’t do their particular craft. In that vein I wanted to share with you some of the really neat stuff I’ve seen lately.

But first, I wanted to share a couple of contests that a couple of friends are having.

My friend Susan at By Grace who is a missionary pastor’s wife in Canada, is hosting a contest for her daughter who does nice work making jewelry. She has an Etsy shop called edcdbeadz, and if I recall correctly, I think she is trying to earn money toward college (though even a teen earning her own spending money is a help to a parent. 🙂 ) Anyway, she is giving away this handcrafted necklace:

See this post or click on the photo to enter.

Then Jeanne Winters of Inspiring Ideas, who designs the “Simply Inspiring” line for Hallmark, is hosting a Mother’s Day giveaway of this from her line here.

Amy at inspire co. is hosting a stitch-along that I am really tempted to do. The idea arose after several crafters did a 39 squares stitch-along: they created a grid of 39 one-inch squares and stitched one square a day, showing us their progress along the way. Besides Amy‘s, I also followed Dawn‘s progress. Amy enjoyed it so much, she wanted to do another stitch-along. this time with the theme of counting our blessings. She created a separate blog for it called, not coincidentally :), Counting My Blessings with a list of participants on the sidebar. Already through that I’ve found another crafty blogger whose style I love at Dishy Vintage. It’s been a long time since I did any embroider besides cross stitch, but I love the depth and dimension of embroidery. I’ve never designed my own, though. And between now and the ladies’ luncheon is the busiest time of year for me, next to Christmas. But I am still tempted…it would be so much fun. Or I might just enjoy watching a few others and then maybe doing my own this summer.

Skip To My Lou has some great teacher appreciation ideas along with links to past posts along the same lines. Great for unique end-of-the year teacher’s gifts. She also shows how to make sachets out of vintage hankies that you don’t want to cut up and easy and inexpensive floral centerpieces that I think even I could do.

Tipnut has a link to this cute salvaged patchwork bulletin board.

Crazy Mom Quilts shares how she organizes scraps of fabric and a quilt made from scraps about 1″ wide.

And though I don’t quilt, I enjoyed Sew, Mama, Sew’s article on Maintaining Your Quilting Momentum. It has some great tips for storing fabric — which I do have a lot of — and need to do something with. I just clicked on the site of the author of that particular post, Jacquie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio, and saw she is having a Spring to Finish Challenge to motivate to finish a project of some kind this spring.