Second-hand Fashion Week Day 4

Hey everyone!

Its been a long and prosperous day at the Stricker house hold. We have had lots of productivity in the morning, such as reading, piano and voice practicing, getting ready for graduation and details about that going on, I finished the movie "Our Mutual Friend", and we had a family friend over for supper and an evening of lots of ironing sharpening iron. It was a great day! God is good.

Today I added a silk ribbon to my normal hair style, I also tend to put half of it back with a clip, but today I decided to do something different. This silk was a remnant from the dress length I have for a silk dress for civil war reenacting. So in the somewhat distant future it will be a whole dress. I love the color! My outfit consists of a a-line skirt that is made out of a scarlet cotten fabric. I made this skirt as one of my first sewing projects a few years ago. I am guessing I paid $10.00 for the fabric. It was on sale of course at Joann. My blouse was thrifted at a local thrift shop called Penny Wise that is run by a church here in my hometown. I have not been there in over a year, but I used to frequent it more often a while ago. I paid only $2.50 I think for this brown three quarter sleeve blouse! Its one of my favorite tops. I love the bohemian feel of the style. Not the greatest the pictures today, as I did them all with the self timer. Oh well! Also I thought I would share with you all my finished children's/teen crocheted afghan I finished on tuesday. I love the colors and I am so glad to finally have finished this beauty. I used all remnants of yarn from past projects that I had left over. I love the random colors.

This photo below I thought would show you all the trim best. I used a pattern for the trim from a book I have called " 50 different crocheted afghan trims" and I love the variety of choices in it! I have only used it for 2 afghans so far. But its a great resource for ideas for trim!

Well God bless and I hope you all sleep well and have a great start to the new day tomorrow! I am so enjoying seeing everyone's outfits for the different days. I have not commented a lot as I have not had time today to comment as much. But great outfits ladies! Looking forward to tomorrow!

In Christ,

Rebecca

Second-hand Fashion Week Day 3

Today I wanted to dress in a spring-like manner, even though its freezing outside! :) I really want those days when its a little breezy and a nice 75 degree weather! Hopefully later this week it will be that way, but today its sunny, instead of rain and dreariness. that is something to be thankful for!!

My outfit for today consists of a purple sweater that I made myself from a long sleeve shirt my that my sister gave to me and I wanted a purple sweater. So last week I cut the sleeves down to half sleeves and cut down the front and sewed it up and added a button to make my new sweater. :) I was very happy with the result and I was inspired by a friend of mine who told me about her thrifted finds that she remade to her own taste. So it was fun to try it out with this shirt. My shoes are not thrifted, but they were on sale for a great price at OffBroadway Shoe Warehouse last september and I wear these jean flats often!
My white teired skirt was given to me by a friend who was moving and she could not take it with her unfortunately. I was happy to be able to use it! I love teired skirts and this white one is very full and definatley a staple in my spring wardrobe! :)
Lastly my grey shirt is not thrifted, but it was bought many years back from Old Navy for probably $10.00. So My skirt and sweater were free, but I paid for only my shoes and shirt. Now that is a deal for me! Have a great day everyone! God bless!
Ok my dear mother took pictures for me today, usually I take them myself with the self timer. But I was so happy to have her help today! So a big thank you to her for the pictures!

In Christ,
Rebecca

And if you all are wondering that is my mother and I's new to us piano! I love it! I am going to go and practice playing and singing with it right now! :)

Second-Hand Fashion Week Days 1 and 2

Hello everyone!

This week Amanda Beth over at Amanda Beth Online is hosting a fashion week that is all about using thrifted, frugal, and hand-me-down clothing for your wardrobe and being modest, beautiful, and feminine at the same time. Of course I said I want to do that! I already do that! So here is another outfit made out of mostly thrifted items that I found at local thrift stores and goodwill. My thrift is fushia and is from a small thrift store in Purcellville, VA. I only paid $5.00

My brown favorite skirt of all time!!! It was only $5.00 at the local thrift store here near Falls Church, VA called the Unique Thrift store. I also bought my 1930's/40's style shoes there for only $9.00!!! I was so happy to find both of these, which I had been wanting and had prayed to the Lord when I went into the store," Lord if it be your will help me find new brown 1930'sish shoes and a brown skirt that I can wear often." It happened! The Lord blesses us when he sees fit.

My hat is from Kohl's and though not thrifted it was only $15.00 on sale after christmas this past year!

The fitted jacket I am wearing in this last picture was also a thrift store find from the Unique Thrift store in Falls Church, VA. The Unique store was found out for our family from another family and it is even bigger than some goodwill I have been to! It can be dangerous! But this jacket is 100% merino wool and was brand new!! I only paid $10.00 for it! I love that it has the light blue thread going through the plaid pattern. I wear a light blue tank top under my pink shirt to tye in with the jacket and I love how the fushia pops that way! :)

Ok so I could get the whole outfit with the shirt, jacket, skirt, and heels for $29.00, but with the hat it totals about 45 dollars total. I love being frugal! I can't imagine paying more for this outfit at the mall with everything brand new and not on sale! eeeek!!

In short! I just love these peices and it was a blessing to find them last fall and they will be used for many years to come! I love dressing in a classic feminine manner.

This is today's outfit. We have had some companky for the weekend and today from out of town. We had a great time visiting and discussing many different things! So I put on one of my favorite new finds! A new to me jean skirt a friend of mine found and showed to me at a thrift store a few weeks ago! It was only $5.00 and I love all the material at the bottom how its such a full skirt! It reminds me of my civil war skirts since it so much fabric. :)

The white tank I used for layering is from wal-mart and it was a great price while not used. Only $3.00 I think. My button down blouse that reminds me of april cornell was sewn by my dear sister and the fabric used to make it is a light dusty blue floral and it was on sale as well! I don't remember how much the fabric cost, but the buttons were free from a friends stash.

So this outfit cost about a total of $18.00, if we say the fabric for the blouse was $10.00, under shirt $3.00, and the skirt was $5.00. Now that I can do! :)

So in the end, I just love thrifting and finding bargains that you can wear and still be feminine and modest! Have a great week everyone with your outfits being put together and seeing each others fashiony ideas.

Thank you to Amanda again for putting this great thing on!!

In Christ,

Rebecca

sewing project complete, reading, listening, and other happenings....

Hello everyone!

Currently, I have been reading a lot of books when I have some spare minutes in my day. I love reading, but when I was a child I did not as much as I do now. I loved to listen to others read to me, but I did not read by myself very much. Now I love it! I have read both Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility among Jane Austen's classics this past year and now I wanted to read the most melancholy I have heard of all her works, Persuasion! I love it! Its witty, melancholy, and just heart-wrenching all in one novel! I had never read Brian Jaques before and I love it! This is the first of 3 in a series and its a great book so far, and I plan to finish it before April comes around! I am about 3/4 of the way done. I love it so far, its a great boyish adventure. I think it would be a great book for Lord willing future sons to read and to recommend to other older siblings and parents and sons and daughters to read together. Very interesting mystery!Today my wonderful and dear friend Jenn gave me a late christmas gift, the book intitled," A Heart for God" by Sinclair Ferguson. I had never heard of the author, but after reading the first chapter this morning I think I will be able to glean a lot of wisdom from how this author teaches about the Word. My Bible is next to it in this picture. Gotta love it! Also, my friend Jenn also let my sister and I borrow this wonderful audio CD from Vision forum. I recommend it highly! Scott Brown hit is on the nail on how to prevent and get rid of gossip in the church. I listened to it all the way through last saturday and I plan to listen to it again.I also have been drinking a lot of tea lately! In case you are wondering, its Earl Grey that I drink mostly, but I also love other black teas, such as english breakfast. I think Beth and I's trip to England last September made me love tea even more! I guess it helps with all the stress and craziness of life. Not really! But its a comfort drink for me! But God is the ultimate Comforter. :)
I love this book and I love John Piper, I have read only a hand full of his books, but every time I glean so much and the Lord teaches me much! This book is a light in a culture that is the opposite of Biblical manhood and womanhood.

Here is the book I quoted from yesterday! I love it! My mom bought it at an antique store of course. Great read! I think maybe I should republish it someday! Maybe it is already!?

I thought I would share with you some projects that are going on this week and last!

My granny square afghan I told you about last week is coming towards completion. I have only 3 more strips to make and then I can put them together!

I have been so busy lately, but I wanted to share with you a long over due project that I had cut out 2 months ago I am unhappy to say. Finally, this weekend I finished this lovely spring/summer night gown just in time for the warm winter. I had wanted to get it done back in January when I had cut it out, but it got pushed back on my list of to-do's. On sunday afternoon I finished the buttons and button holes being put onto the bodice and here it is! I had the inspiration to sit down and finish it, because two friends of ours had come over to sew with Beth and I wanted to sew along with them. Hence, the inspiration to get another project completed!

I used the same Simplicity pattern that I used back in January for my flannel, white and red floral night gown for winter and fall. This time I used the same view A with, but instead of short sleeves and ruffles on the sleeve, I used the same bodice and skirt, but I used the long sleeve from the robe for the sleeve with no elastic. I like the way it turned out for spring! The fabric was on the clearance at Joanne last fall and I think I only paid around $14.00 for the whole project not counting how much I paid for this pattern many years ago.

I just had to use this lavendar trim that matched the little flowers perfectly from Beth and I's stash of vintage trims!!! I trimmed the bottom with some lace that was from an old sheet we used to make petticoats out of for civil war reenacting. We had the lace left over and it was just enough for the bottom of my new spring night gown!
I also trimmed the bodice closure with the same lavendar trim!

All the buttons, trim, and lace were free! I love old ladies who have lots of notions they are giving away! That is where Beth and I have gotten a lot of our notions. Its sad it they can't or don't sew anymore, but its great to help the new generation be able to do so!
And there it is hanging on my wall, while I stand proud of my now able hands that are can actually sew a project by myself!!! Its a mile stone for me! I had prayed since I was a little girl that I would be able to sew when I grew up and its happened! I still can't believe it! God is good!!!

I wanted a feminine option besides my comfy PJ pants and t-shirt, although I still wear those sometimes too. But I am trying to have a nice Pajama wardrobe that is feminine and modest just like my day-wear wardrobe.

God bless and have a wonderful week everyone! Praise the Lord from who all blessings flow!

In Christ,

Rebecca

The Clear Vision and other quotes

The Clear Vision

"Break forth, my lips, in praise, and own
the wiser love severly kind;
Since, richer for its chastening grown,
I see, whereas I once was blind.
The world, O Father, hath not wronged
With loss the life by thee prolonged;
But still, with every added year,
More beautiful thy works appear.

As thou hast made the world without;

Make thou more fair my world within;

Shine through its lingering clouds of doubt;
Rebuke its haunting shapes of sin;
Fill, brief or long, my granted span
Of life with love to thee and man;
Strike when thou wilt the hour of rest,
But let my last days be my best."

-by John Greenleaf Whittier, from the book, " Poems With Power To Strengthen the Soul", compiled by James Mudge

Serve God and Be Cheerful

Serve God and be cheerful. Make brighter
The brightness that falls to thy lot;
The rare, or the daily sent, blessing
Profane not with gloom or with doubt.

Serve God and be cheerful. Each sorrow
Is- with thy will in God's- for the best.
O'er the cloud hands the rainbow. Tomorrow
Will see the blue sky in the west.

Serve God and be cheerful. Look-upward!
God's countenance scatters the bloom;
And the soft summer light of his jeaven
Sjome over the cross and the tomb.

Serve God and be cheerful. The wrinkles
of age we may take with a smile;
But the wrinkles of faithless forboding
Are the crow's feet of Beelzebud's guile.

Serve God and be cheerful. The winter
Rolls round to the beautiful spring.
And o'er the green grace of the snowdrift
The nest-building robins sing.

Serve God and be cheerful. Live nobly,
Do right, and do good. Make the best
Of the gifts and the work put before you,

And to God without fear leave the rest."

by William Newell, also from "Poems With the Power To Strengthen the Soul"

I decided to bold the lines that stood out to me the most when I read these poems this morning. I had not read this wonder volume of poetry for months and I see why I missed reading! Its so encouraging and I hope you all get encouragement and conviction through these little poems. God bless and have a wonderful day being cheerful in the Lord and doing His will!

In Christ,

Rebecca

* All photos curteosy of Lindsey W. and they may only be used with permission from my Rebecca Ann. Thanks! *

Lots going on..... in my life

Hey everyone!

You all may have notice my lack of posts lately!

But I realized that this is my 70th blog post!! Yeah!!! I love blogging and hearing from you all! I love comments and feed back! I also have reached 45 followers!!! This has gotten me excited today. :)

Right now in my life as a full time homeschool senior, daughter of my earthly parents, daughter of the King, musician, baker and chef, friend to many, pursual of my Higher calling from the Lord, and many other personal changes going on in my life, I have been so busy and obsorbed totally in life in the moment. I have been thinking about the future and planning and trying to figure out what I am to be doing by next year. As I don't want to get the normal college education at any university, its been really a tough road, not knowing what I will be doing for my education next year. But I know its in the Lord's hands, even when I cry out to Him and there is no answer now I know He will answer, just not now. In His timing!
My list is ever growing with the things I want to do and need to do for school, spiritually, my family and friends and goals I want to do. I always write out a list the night before each day. Its been a habit of mine. I also finally found the perfect pencil cup for 25cents!!! I love it, it has a cute floral motif on it.

I have ideas for what I will be sewing, that I will keep baking and cooking, and hopefully be driving and teaching children the art of the piano by then. But I do not know what "college education" I will be pursuing. I thought the Lord was leading me to get a music major in voice, or a music major in teaching piano. But now I really feel uneasy about that and feel the Lord is leading me in a different direction from what I have always thought I would do in college.

So right now I am waiting and I can not say that I am waiting as patiently as I should be. I am patient, but I think I am just scared, not knowing what I will be doing next year. But the Lord has shown me that He is a comforter, yesterday I had a break down about worrying about my future and He sent these verses my way. I have been enduring much affliction lately and in the past 2 years, ever since I became a christian I saw much affliction from people who were "christians" and that really suprised me and it hurt. I still am appaled and some of the behavior I have witnessed in the Church of Jesus Christ! So these verses were very timely " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." - 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

I don't fit in with many of my age group of this generation and I may have different convictions about living a godly life compared to some of this century, but I know that I am comforted by my family through Christ, they have been through affliction and are encouraging and I am grateful for that. These verses were so timely when I needed comfort, not being sure what will be happening in the future and when I had suffered from much anxiety and remembering things that have happened that were hard and are still hard.

My parents want me to have some type of degree to further my education as well as if I need to get job in the future. But the main reason they want me to do college at a univerisity of some sort is to learn more in my music studies. I too want to learn lot in music and I think there is nothing wrong with learning. I am fine with that, but as I believe and so do my parents I should not have a left wing and liberal and non-Biblical education for college. College-plus is looking like a good option along with taking classes at the local community college called Nova. But I really want to do something that is not just studying, but it ministering to people instead of having my nose in my music studies all the time. I do think I would still be able to evangalize to people through college, but I much rather focus my whole higher education program on God and His kingdom than my own music or teaching career. We shall see though! If you think of me please pray for guidance from the Lord and that He would give me a clear vision of what He wants me to do and not what I or my parents want me to do.

Oh and speaking of a music major that I may become, here is my new piano!!!!!!! It is not mine, but my father bought it for my mother and she shares it with me. I am so excited!!!!!!! I love it! I have been practicing most every day piano and voice! Its a kawai and it is 5 feet and 10 inches long. I absolutly love it! I still can't believe we own a grand piano. We have another Kawai which I have shown pictures of on here before, but it is an upright, still wonderful, but this is even better! Now when I start Lord willing teaching piano students next fall they can do duets on both pianos at the same time. Right now my mom is doing that with her students for their spring recital. I am doing a duet with one of her younger students that is near my level, but I am doing music at her level, not mine with her. She is a great student and I can't wait to learn the duet parts to play with her for the recital.

It was so amazing when they tipped it on its side to bring it up the stairs to our living room!!! EEEEE! I love seeing the inside and I just had to snap a picture.

This picture is not that great I realize, but its wonderful in person. If you are in VA come and visit!

On another note, here is my outfit for today. As I said ealier I have been doing some spring cleaning and I have gotten all my bohemian and spring-like out of their storage bin in my closet. I was so happy to wear my green skirt, which I bought in Italy 2 summers ago with my church group and family on a mission trip to Rome and learning about Church history.

The skirt I am not sure how much it was, I saw it at a street vendor and I said I liked it and my dad bought it for me! :) The belt also came with the skirt. The three quarter sleeve jean shirt was I think $3.00 at the thrift store last fall and I love it! I wear it for days that are more casual and I will be doing cooking and cleaning like today, because it wears well and will not get ruined easily like some of my favorite spring blouses. The cross necklace I wear everyday and it was bought for me by my father when we visited the Vatican in Italy the same trip as when we bought the skirt and yes those are the only two things he bought me. Two very special things! The purple t-shirt is from target and was $12.00 that same summer before we went to Rome. I wear it so much! Purple is one of my favorite colors besides blue and green and red!

So I have been very preoccupied with prayer for the future, as well as home-keeping. Helping my mother and sister with meals, making food, spring cleaning, and hospitality as well. I have also had a lot of school work and lots of sewing has been going on for civil reenacting, such as a quilt, as well as planning future projects and I am planning to make a modern night gown and 2 shirt dresses for spring in the coming weeks. I am also almost finished with a granny square blanket for my hope chest. Its made out of all the scraps of yarn from all the dish cloths I made for christmas gifts back in december.

Here the sqaures are above! All of the yarns were from previous projects when I had left over yarn and they are crocheted. I plan to start putting them together later tonight, I will be crocheting 5 more to make it the size I would like for a fun universal children's quilt. I will probably use it now on my own bed for summer, since it is warmer and I won't need a flannel/fleece blanket, but something lighter. This afghan will also be mostly 100% cotten yarns, some soft acrylic is in there, but not a lot.

I also have been doing spring cleaning in my room, as I am getting ready for moving my old bed back into my room and I also switched my spring cloths back into my closet. ! God bless and I am off to finish putting in some more pita bread to bake next. I used this recipe and I love it! It turns out delicious as well as lovely in appearance.

In Christ,

Rebecca

Working towards a room make-over

Hello everyone!

I have been pondering and brain storming the new theme for my bed room. I have wanted to redo it for a while now and now I am finally getting around to starting to gradually change it. The theme is light blue, blue, and navy and white. My inspiration was from these pillows and cushions my sister made for me for my birthday last year. We use them on our deck furniture in the summer and I use them on top of my hope chest for extra seating through out the year. Even my antique music and civil war hood are inspiring me to change the colors to blue, navy, and light blue! hehe! blue is everywhere, but the green walls are still here! I am not sure when I will be able to repaint yet. The furniture must go first. Right now I have the new desk that is my mothers that she is letting me use next to the old desk, until it is sold. But I love dark wood furniture and my hope chest and dresser are also dark wood. So the theme will be blues, white, and dark wood. It makes me happy! :) This is the other side of my room. I do not like it anymore. I am in the process of getting rid of this furniture. I have a nice regular bed and white head board in our garage that will replace this loft bed and a desk that will also replace the old desk.

The old furniture and I will post after pictures when I get my old bed back into my room.

You may be wondering what some things are that I have been up to lately. Well I have been in the process of selling some furniture that I don't like as much anymore and putting old furniture back into my room. Here is a picture of my room before I sold my chair and now I am in the process of selling my loft bed, desk, and filing cabinet. My mother is giving me her old desk and her old chair, which my sister and I are going to reaploster.

So the lounge chair in the corner underneath the loft bed was sold yesterday. Today I had some inquiries about the loft bed and filing cabinet. I am selling these furniture peices on craig's list. Its like a yard sale, except its on the internet. It has been so easy and I am pleased that the Lord has allowed me to change the sytle of my room. I have become a more traditional and girly person in the last 5 years. Contemporary in furniture does not describe my style anymore. So I am excited to change it.

I also found a blue and white lamp at the thrift store that goes well with the new theme I think. I never really had a theme and it always looked ver eclectic as my sister says. So now that I have colors and everything I can't wait to see it all come together.

I love the little delicate blue flowers painted on it! It was only $10.00 and it works better than the lamp that broke a few weeks ago I used to have.

You can also see the ugly green walls! I do not like it at all!!! So I will be changing the walls to my favorite color- light blue! I just finished my new curtains for the new room today. I love the way they turned out! And all the fabric for them was free! The white was curtains before that I cut up and then I put the blue floral on each end of the old curtains to go with the new blue theme. I love it! You can see the detail of the floral below. This was the theme for my 18th birthday party last year. My sister made a table cloth out of this fabric. Now I turned it into curtains.

So yes that is what I have been up to and I will give more updates when I finally move the old furniture out and the other bed in and get it painted. I am not sure when this will happen as I am waiting for the furniture to sell and our family is so busy. So have a great weekend and God bless! I hope I have inspired to make your homes a haven.

In Christ,

Rebecca