Welcome the New Year with thankfulness!

We have been in the ACCS reenacting group for 1 years now this past october event, we love all our friends there! Here is the website, if any of you are in the Virginia area and want to do civil war reenacting with a christian homeschool group. We love recreating history with friends and family! This was our past 2009 October event, all the ladies got a group picture. http://www.underonebanner.com/

My 18th birthday party last April was a blast, we had a 1950's theme and Bethany made her dress and my dress. Friends of course was the best part of the whole affair!

We went on the Sense and Sensibility trip to London and Bath this past september. It was filled with many wonderful memories and new friends! Bethany and I are in the top picture in Bath at the Jane Austen festival with our friends Sarah and Ana. In the bottom picture we are in London at the fan museum after tea with the whole sense and sensibility group. Mrs. Chancey was a wonderful tour hostess and we were so happy to meet her as well!

This was just some fun remembering some of the events from this past year! There are many more I don't have time to post!

Dear friends! I have been pondering today how the past year has gone by so quickly! I remember when I was about 7 years old and I said along with my sister nodding in agreement ," We will never be 17 and 18 Mommy!" I said,"Mommy we will never be that old for a long time and I can't imagine being as old as my baby sitter Cherie." I remember looking up to her like she was so tall and so much bigger and that I would never be that mature or tall! :) Now I have little girls looking up to me and I am much taller than lots of them! I cannot believe I thought I would never be 18 as it has come quite quickly! The years have gone by and the Lord is still here and He has been with me the whole way! But the last year has been a very life changing time for me! I have realized how many faults I have even more-so than I had in the past. I gave my life to Christ two years ago and I believe the Lord has been changing me over the past year so much! Its been a roller coaster ride I will never forget and it has done me good; even through all the times of depression and lonliness I have experienced I have been able to find joy in my Savior.

Today I read this from Spurgeon's book called "Morning and Evening" and it really sums up what kind of year it has been for me, how the Lord has helped me with my sin and how I have learned to trust His power to lead my life.

" Personality is declared most fully. The sinner must come to Jesus, not to works, ordinances, or doctrins, but to a personal Redeemer, who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree. The bleeding, dying, rising Saviour, is the only star of hope to a sinner. Oh for grace to come now and drink, ere the sun sets upon the year's last day!

No waiting or preparation is so much as hinted at. Drinking represents a reception for which no fitness is required. A fool, a thief, a harlot can drink; and so sinfulness of character is no bar to the invitation to believe in Jesus. We want no golden cup, no bejewelled chalice, in which to convey the water to the thirsty; the mouth of poverty is welcome to stoop down and quaff the flowing flood. Blistered, leprous, filthy lips may touch the stream of divine love; they cannot pollute it, but shall themselves be purified. Jesus is the fount of hope. Dear reader, hear the dear Redeemer's loving voice as He cries to each of us, "If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink." -John 7:37

May we all drink of the fountain of life, that we may be clean from our sins! As I know I am nothing but filthy rags in His sight without my Savior's blood to make me clean!

God bless you all and may this new year be another adventure of learning, making things new, and trusting in His voice alone!

Just for fun I thought I would post Bethany at her spring recital this past year! She has learned so much during this first year of her learning to play the harp! We are so proud of her! I think it is such a beautiful instrument to listen to and it becomes her aubern hair very well don't you think?!
In Christ,
Rebecca

New Cloche is up!!

I was just wanted to say that I think I have found my cloche! I believe I really am in love with this new cloche that one of my favorite sellers has put up today!! I love it and its light blue and has the most darling white bow! I think it will be perfect for sunday's best!!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=33483385

what do you all think?! I just love it, should I buy this one or should I buy the plain one here--->

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=35687827

I am debating between the two, I think I just love the one with the bow better!

I think this one I will be asking for for my birthday here!---->http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=36879937

I think the above is the perfect easter hat! My birthday is in april, so its perfect!

In Christ,
Rebecca

Cloche Hats

This is the hat with a red flower pin I already had that I just put over the bow that is on the side of the hat for a different look. I will have to wear this flower this week with some outfits. Can you tell I love this hat! :)

On saturday, the day after christmas, my mother and I decided we would brave the crowds and go shopping togeather. I was delighted as I have not been to a real store in ages it seems. I am the thrift store queen usually! :)

But it was a delight to go to Kohls and to Target. I purchased probably the best purchase I have made in a long time, a brown cloche hat!! I adore it and I just had to post some pictures of myself wearing it, curteosy of my dear sister's photography skills. She always gets great pictures, but somehow I own a camera and she does not! She just borrows mine! :)

This is the wonderful hat that I just adore! This is the hat as I bought it without any extra imbelishment. I love it this way, I wore this new sweater that is on me in the picture and the hat to church yesterday with my favorite brown tiered shirt, a white shirt, and my brown 30's style heels and I was set! I will have to post a picture of this ensemble sometime on here. I just adore it!

Besides this hat I want to purchase another cloche hat! I just love this style of a hat, I normally do not wear hats. But I love this style and I would love to have a few other colors and styles of this particular type of hat.

Here are some cloche hats I have found that are handmade on etsy that I would love to purchase in my dreams.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/buygail?section_id=6195630&page=2

Just for fun the above site has some pretty elaborate hats! Have a look to just dream about having a fun hat!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=36879937

This hat above I am seriously thinking about purchasing in the near future! I absolutly love it and its my favorite colors! I adore periwinkle/light blue and grey togeather! I wear this combo quite often with my cloths, or brown and light blue! My two favorite colors!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=37123692

I would never dream of buying the above, as its quite out of my price range! Well the ammount I am willing to spend for another hat! Its quite gorgeous though!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=35687827

The above hat I would quite seriously think of purchasing in the near future as well. Again, its light blue and I love this color and its simple, but still elegant and pretty! I think a hat can add so much to an outfit and its just not common anymore, which makes it such a breath of fresh air to me to wear one!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=37279186&ref=sr_list_21&&ga_search_query=vintage+hats&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=17&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

The above is the hat my sister adores and I could see her wearing this definately! Maybe someday she will own it! Its gorgeous!

Also I found this seller who has made her own patterns for a cloche style hat! She has many shapes and takes on this style as well as many sizes. I would be willing to buy a pattern and try to make my own as well in the near future. But right now I am saving to buy the light blue plain cloche or the elaborate one that has the blue flowers.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=37385360&ref=sr_list_15&&ga_search_query=vintage+cloche+hats&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

I hope you all have fun looking at these and I just love the cloche style and even if you do not want to spend the money on one for your own wardrobe, do pass this post on to others interested in past fashion! Its just fun to look! I hope this is as enjoyable for you all to read as it has been for me to look and dream about owning another one of these beautiful, feminine, acessories!

Also a young lady who went on the England trip with my sister and I back in September with Jennie Chancey has posted a little about cloche hats as well. Amanda Beth posted in the fall about the falls latest fashion trends and cloche hats were included.

Check out her post here - http://amandabethonline.blogspot.com/2009/08/fall-lovelies-from-talbots-part-i.html

In Christ,

Rebecca

A Homemade Christmas

Dish cloths have been what I have lived and breathed this christmas season, I have made about 20 or so sets of 2 for friends and family! I have crocheted in the car, during movies, and juts about anywhere else between everything else. :) Oh and by the way all of these dish cloths are 100% cotten and are made of sugar and cream or peaches and cream yarn! I got the sugar and cream from michaels, but then I discovered that wallie world(a.K.A walmart) carried the peaches and cream which is the knock off brand, so I bought lots of it when I discovered this!

This is what you get when you have crocheted about 20 or so sets 2 of dish cloths for friends and family. These are only a few that I have not wrapped up yet. I still have to make about 5 more sets to send off to friends on monday as new year/late christmas gifts! I have loved making them and have gotten quite good at gauging them and having nice neat stitches. Now I will have to make something quite different next year for all my friends! No more dish cloths!! But I am glad I made them as I am sure they will enjoy them.

Here are some more projects I made for christmas gifts! I made this knitting needle case from the same pattern that I used for my crochet hook holder. It was a McCall's pattern actually, I said simplicity, but it is McCalls. Bethany my sister really likes her new knitting needles case! I knew she would love the fabric from Marie Madeline Studio! thank you Long Ladies!

I also made my sister a Bible cover as well! I made one for my mother, which I put in a previous post. I had to wait to post this until after my sister opened her gifts yesterday as she reads my blog. :) She loved the lavendar fabric. we had it in some very small scraps that were just the right size for her mini ESV Bible. I had to put it into strips and sew the strips togeather for the outside floral as the fabric was a long strip too skinny for the cover enitially. But it worked out to make the smaller strips and sew them togeather for the outside cover.

Merry Christmas and a very happy new year everyone! God bless!

In Christ,

Rebecca

Evening on Christmas

Dear friends!
Merry Christmas! Our Savior is born and has washed away our sin! Joy to the world for that!

I received a book that I have been wanting for a while for christmas today, it is called Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon, its a devotional for each day of the year. It unlike most devotionals has one for morning and one for evening. I first heard of this book from my friend Melanie's blog Complete In Thee. I love it and I am enjoying it. I thought I would put today's evening on here to share to close this precious and joyous day! I have spent it with friends and family and I am tired, but content and joyful and encouraged by our Savior and christian fellowship with fellow believers rejoicing in His birth.

Evening, December 25 from Charles Spurgeon's, "Morning and Evening"

"And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said," It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts, Thus did Job continually." -Job 1:5

What the patriarch did early in the morning, after the family festivities, it will be well for the believer to do for himself ere he rests tonight. Amid the cheerfulness of household gatherings it is easy to slide into sinful levities, and to forget our avowed character as Christians. It ought not to be so, but so it is, that our days of feasting are very seldom days of sanctified enjoyment, but too frequently degernate into unhallowed mirth. There is a way of joy as pure and sanctifiying as though one bathed in the rivers of Eden: holy gratitude should be quite as purifying an element as grief. Alas! for our poor hearts, that facts prove that the house of mourning is better than the house of feasting. Come, believer, in what have you sinned today?Have you been forgetful of your high calling? Have you been even as others in the idle words and loose speech? Then confess the sin, and fly to the sacrifice. The sacrifice sanctifies. The precious blood of the Lamb slain removes the guilt, and purges away the defilement of our sins of ignorance and carelessness. This is the best ending of a Christmas-day- to wash anew in the cleansing fountain. Believer, come to this sacrifice continually; if it be so good tonight, it is good every night. To live at the altar is the privledge of the royal priesthood; to them sin, great as it is, nevertheless no cause for despair, since they draw near yet again to the sin-atoning victim; and their conscience is purged from dead works.

"Gladly I close this festive day,
Grasping the altar's hallow'd horn;
My slips and faults are washed away;
The Lamb has all my trespass borne."

To all of you may you have a blessed Christmas and a happy new year! I will be posting more often, as I have christmas and new years' break this week. I will be posting my thoughts spiritually, in the sewing room, craftings, and books I am reading. Merry Christmas and lets remember the birth and the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ!

In Christ,
Rebecca

Merry Christmas! And two sewing projects complete.

I made a crochet hook holder from a simplicity pattern my sister and I had in our pattern stash. I love it and it holds them all in one place instead of losing them.

As well, I also really have been wanting a new bag to put all my school books, other books, and crochet projects, and music in when I am going places or going to the homeschool classes I take outside of home. Also since I may be attending a college next year I needed a sturdy bag for all these things. I came up with this after seeing this blog and then I was inspired to make my own messenger bag!http://mmmcrafts.blogspot.com/2009/06/basic-messenger-bag.html

I am happy with the way it turned out! It has many pockets and I actually made up the pattern, I just measured around two of my school books side by side and that was the dimensions of my new bag.

It even has a pocket for my calculators, one for my current pleasure reading on one side of the bag, and on the other more pockets for pencils and the others for more stuff. I can fit everything in here. The only thing I am not happy with is the strap feels like it might break when I put all my books and stuff in it. I am wondering if there is some way I can reinforce the strap?! I am not sure how to do it. But I think it would make this bag last longer and not have my books all falling out when the strap breaks! This is my own pattern, I made it up, so its not like a better pattern would probably do it. But it works for now!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Latest sewing for Christmas

Well everyone here are some of my latest sewing projects I have been working on for christmas and I have also given myself some presents! lol

First I used the tutorial over at the Marie Madeline Studio for Bible book covers for myself, my sister, and my mother. http://mariemadelinestudio.typepad.com/mariemadeline_studio/2008/01/fabric-book-cov.html


I loved the idea and they turned out great! A really easy project for the beginner on her own seamstress, as I usually need lots of help from my sister Beth to understand what I am doing, but this worked out pretty well with not too much confusion. She helped me understand one step that I was confused on but otherwise I did all the sewing myself. Yeah!

Here is the cover I made for my own Bible.





Here is my mother's Bible.

















First I just measured around my mother's Bible the deminsions.















This is what I ended up with, a pattern for the cover. A very easy pattern to follow when you read the instructions, as I was doing and got confused, but then I went back to their tutorial and I was fine in the construction of the cover! :)























Then I finished the cover and this is the finished product.

I will post more christmas gifts and projects soon!

Christmas is almost here!

Christmas is almost here and fellow bloggers I will not be blogging until the new year. My projects right now have been christmas music, school, having friends coming and going, a possible christmas party for our civil war reenacting group tomorrow, but there is possible chance of a foot of snow! So we are not sure if we will still have the party! ): I am disapointed to most likely not have it, but its for the better to keep everyone safe. I will post pictures from christmas, our friend's civil war wedding, christmas presents I have made, and more after the christmas holiday!

Here is my family last weekend on December 12th at the wedding of some friends of our from our civil war reenactmenting.

Christ the real gift of Christmas

Hello everyone!

I thought I would share with you a frugal way to wrap your christmas gifts and my thoughts on the upcoming day of Christmas. Now my family and I never hardly buy wrapping paper because we have it from after christmas sales from the year before, but what we do have from the previous year also are christmas cards. You know all those beautiful christmas cards you receive from friends and family every year that you don't want to throw away?! My family and I save these and instead of putting them away into a storage box we save them and make them into beautiful gift tags!

Here are some examples of what you can do with your old cards. You can also do this with birthday and any other type of card by the way!

You just cut your card with pretty sizzors (as seen in basket)or regular sizzors and then punch a hole in the corner of your shape whatever it may be. And then you have a gift tag to put on your presents with ribbon and it looks great and is more personal. I love choosing ones that I think look like that family member or friends personalities and putting it on there wrapped gift.















You end up with a basket quite full of tags and sizzors in there to cut more cards into tags!




















Then you have all your different tags ready to be put on your presents.

Now of course we should not make christmas about what gifts we are giving or how many gifts we receive, as always we need to keep our focus on our Lord Jesus Christ! During your christmas wrapping, baking, and listening to those christmas peices of music remember who came as a man and then sacrificed himself for you! Its the best gift you could receive, and that is Christ!




I love this passage where Mary is told she will give birth to a son and she says,


" My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, and he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever." -Luke 1:46-55



She is a visionary here and sees how from generation to generation God was getting them ready for a Savior and that He is using her even though she is not strong, he is making her strong. God has used the humble and told the previous generations of His greatness.

Then later the Lord worked a miracle and Christ the Savior of Mary like Mary had been told!



" And she gave birth to her first born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were frightened. And the angel said to them, " Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign unto you, you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying," Glory to God in the highest, and peace among those with whom he is pleased!"
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepards said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the sayingthat had been told to them concerning the child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shephards had told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shephards returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them." Luke 2:7-20

I just thought I would post the passages that always jump out at me every christmas. God is so amazing!

I thought this tag put my thoughts very well, "May the celebration of Christmas cause us to rejoice like the angels, hear like the shephards, and follow like the wise men!"

















In Christ,

Rebecca

Patrick Henry Homeschool Choir

Here are some of the songs my choir sang at our christmas concert yesterday. The first song is called On This Day Earth Shall Ring, the second is Ding Dong Merrily On High, and the third is an arrangement of The First Noel. The last one is called Once Upon A Holy Night, my friend did the solo for this one; her name is Olivia. But I also sang this solo at our other concert at a nursing home 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately we did not get a video. ): Oh well. Enjoy! I am on the far right with the dark hair on the top row, its hard to see me.

This choir I sing in is the YMA which is the Youth Music Academy choir at Patrick Henry College. The college has a program that has a choir and orchestra for homeschool junior and high school students. Its at the college, but is not apart of their courses.

In Christ,

Rebecca

Harper's ferry reenactment and quilting

Yesterday my family and I went in the snow to the harper's ferry reenactment. The snow was beautiful!! My family and I and some other family friends were the boarders in an old boarding house in the town. This was our impression for the day. We told the spectators about how the union army had taken over the confederate town and how the army officers were staying in our boarding house. It was a lot of fun and my sister and I were able to hand quilt a good bit of a quilt my mother, sister, and I had sewn togeather.

This picture below is me in the snow after the reenactment at our house. I was tired and it was dark. Sorry these are so dark. Had to get one picture of my full outerwear and everything. I felt like Jo or Meg from Little Women. Now I know what it is like to tromp through the snow in a hoop and all those petticoats and even have a snow ball fight!! lol It was tons of fun!

We worked on this quilt in the up stairs parlor of the old house. It was lovely, except for the draft that was coming from the bacony doors behind us in these pictures.

This is a variation of the Ohio Star. My sister will be posting pictures when it is finished on her blog. For now here is a glimspe of our day at the boarding house. I only got these three pictures on my own camera. But some friends of mine that were with us got pictures that they will be sending me sometime soon. So don't worry more pictures soon! :)

In Christ,

Rebecca