Update and thoughts

Hey everyone!


It has been crazy at my house as of late! My sister and I are graduating as you all know and we have been flying around like mad trying to get all the announcements and invites for our ceremony and open house for graduation done! If you all are interested here is a picture of my announcement and here are a series of the grad pictures. We were able to send out most of our announcements yesterday. We bought the announcements at michaels and our friend Lindsey did the printing of the writing on them for us, as well as the wallet sized photos.



The whole box of all the cards come this way from michaels.


Lindsey printed the announcements.

The announcements and photo before tieing with a ribbon.

The finished product! Bethany has stationary from michaels as well, but it is navy and matches her dress she is wearing in the photos below.

The one below is the one I used for my graduation announcements! I thought it was the best one out of all the ones my friend Lindsey did. Bethany my sister also thought it was the best one. So this is my grad photo!

The rest of these I thought I would post for fun. It was a lot of fun a few saturdays ago when our friend Lindsey did an all day photo shoot at the local gardens by our house called Meadow Lark gardens. It was a beautiful day that the Lord blessed us with! We had lots of sunshine and it was cool because of the lovely windy day.

The above one was taken on a hill and I felt on top of the world! hehe It was a fun picture to pose for! :)

I love this one of Bethany and I !

This one I have deemed my contemplative look. :)

Pretty flowers and all!

This one above was my second choice for my official grad picture. It was close!

And to end! We are happy despite all the stress and things flying by with graduation preparations! Beth is sewing up a storm making our graduation gowns! Hopefully she can get pictures up when all the hustle and bustle is over!

God bless and I will try and squeeze in some pictures of my quilt soon! I finished the top!!!! So I will post pictures once I baste the batting and the top together.

In Christ,

Rebecca

All photos are the property of Lindsey W. and may not be used without permission.

Life and findings update

Hey everyone!


Yes I am alive! hehe
Well anywho I have had a lovely weekend and have had an interesting start to my week. Yes I am not elaborating all the happenings around here. But just for fun here is a book that I found when I went to a library book sale at the library in Purcellville, VA with my family and dear friend Ivis on saturday. I was shocked and squealed with delight when I found it and the lady said I could have it for only $20.00! But it was originally going for 50!!!! So I was happy and said you never come across books this old usually and I have saved so much money on books in the past by getting them used, from the library, and from friends. So I justified the purchase! :)

Without further or due here is my volume of poetry from 1861!!!!!!! Yes you read that right 1861 is the public date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought the embossing was amazing!!!!

It also has great poems in it! Yes its a volume of christian poems that the author wrote throughout his life! His name you might be wondering is, Thomas H. Stockton.

I thought that all the illustrations were beautiful and you may be wondering who drew them. Well guess what he was an artist too!!!! I am just amazed at his work!!!!!!

WOW what a concept!!! he even has sections in his little volume by categories, such as the Bible!!! Its quite wonderful to me!

Another adorable illustration of two children climbing a fence with their dog. Maybe they are going home to dinner!
Horses and their masters in a barn. Its quite better in person. Yep just drop by if you want to see this little volume. :)

Now that was just amazing and I can still get over it! I will post a poem from this little volume at the end of the post. Sorry this is going to be long!



My outfit I wore this morning. I love this jumper my sister made for me for christmas last year. I also wore my favorite white blouse that I wear with just about everything.

Yes I changed my cloths, because I did not want to dirty them, so I wore my lovely vintage 1950's house dress. Yes this is about 60 years old and I wear it! It should probably be in a museum or in a box. :) I love it anyway! and it has great pockets for everything as well as embroidery on the pockets and sleeves. You can see a detail below. I believe I bought it off of etsy from this and it was only $20.00! I bought it about 3 years ago when I started wearing dresses for the first time since I was a girl every day.

I just love it! I believe it was hand-made by someone in their home, not from a store as it has no tag and raw seams on the inside and it appears to have hand-stitching.

Oh and just for fun this photo is of a harpsichord my sister and I saw in the Victoria and Albert museum in England last fall when we went on the England costuming tour with Jennie Chancey. You can see her website on my side bar. I just love this harpsicord!!! Wish I had one! This one belonged to Queen Victoria! It amazed me! I have been going through photos from the trip for my mother so she can print them and do scrapbooks for my sister and I's graduation June 22nd. Here are two of my favorite dresses from the V&A exhibit.

Yes this gown is a bustle and I love it! The bustle gowns have always fascinated me! I have always wanted one! Beth says maybe someday she will sew me one! Please dearest Beth! :)

And my other all time favorite era I have never worn, the 1830's I believe. I just love the sleeves and the shevron bodice!!! I love the textile as well! I am a sucker for these two eras and just love the big sleeves and big skirts, another reason I love the civil war as you can have huge cages and lots of petticoats russling! Its wonderful!

And to finish off this post here is my sister and I in one of our grad pictures. Yes we did wear modern dress and skirt combos instead of 1860's or regency attire. We thought it was more real and would be better to relate to our friends and family and show our real personalities. We wanted to wear clothing we wear all the time.

Our dear friend Lindsey W. took our pictures at a park by our house called Meadowlark gardens and I will be posting more of the pictures sometime soon. Its been really busy! We are actually leaving tomorrow Beth and I to go and visit some friends and sew until sunday and watch movies and have a grand time! The poem by Thomas H. Stockton

The True Refuge

"Thy goodness is my refuge, Lord!
Here let me ever rest:

I feel the Spirit of Thy Word-
Thou willest what is best!

Thy knowledge is my refuge, Lord!

Here let me ever rest:
I feel thy Spirit of Thy word--
Thou knowest what is best!

Thy Wisdom is my refuge Lord!

Here let me ever rest;
I feel the Spirit of Thy word--
Thou choosest what is best!

Thy Power completes my refuge Lord!
Here let me ever rest:

I feel the Spirit of thy word--
Thou doest what is best!

Thou art Perfect Refuge, Lord!

Here let creation rest;
Charm'd by the Spirit of Thy word--
God's ways are always best!"

Amen! Let us ever rest in the love and power of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Have a lovely week everyone and may God bless you as you rest in Him!

In Christ,

Rebecca

Oh and btw the photo for our graduation was taken by my dear friend Lindsey W. and is her own work. We love her photography, but I ask that no one uses it without my permission or Lindseys. Thank you so much!

Civil War Star Quilt and 1812 shoes

Hello everyone!


Well you may be wondering what I have been doing to be so busy not to post as much as I usually try to do. My sister has helped me into a new endeavor of sewing a civil war reproduction quilt! I have helped her cut out quilts before and sewn some blocks for her quilts and quilts we have with friends for friends. But I have never made a whole civil war quilt by myself. I am finishing up the lap quilt that was my first quilt that I posted about here. I am putting the binding on today and then it will be able to be used on my bed. I am excited to finish my first quilt I have sewn on my own! The measurements for the star blocks. I have to cut out 42 blocks for the top and then I was 42 solid printed blocks that will alternate between the stars. Here are a few variations of the stars below.

I love the brightly colored prints! We have lots of printed and woven colored scraps from garments we have made for civil war living history events, as well as many
many white scraps from modern to civil war and 1812 living history. We use white for everything! So its great to get rid of the bins and bins of white scraps! We are not so abundant in the reproduction printed fabrics though. So I am trying to use them wisely!

Here are a whole bunch of sets I cut out on monday before I sewed them up into their stars.

You can also see our rotary cutter and our wonderful cutting surface we bought at wally world (walmart). :) I love our cutting board.

And a suprise!!!! My present from my parents for my birthday arrived today! A pair of 1812 ladies walking shoes! We will not be doing living history at Fort McHenry after all. With graduating and all the other civil war events and other things going on it was too much for our family. But I will still be able to wear them Lord willing we do living history at the Fort next year. I love them anyway! they fit wonderfully and Robert Lands work is beautiful! I also own 2 pairs of 1860s boots for civil war living history from him and they so comfortable and accurate. He always strives for accuracy and quality.

Have a wonderful friday and weekend!

God bless,

Rebecca Ann

WIFD Day 5 and thrift store finds

Hey everyone!

I am sorry,but I did not get pictures of my outfit yesterday, I also wore a skirt as usual, but today I turned over a new leaf. After being called by the Lord to modesty in my clothing I threw out many of my too tight jeans and short shorts. So its different for me to wear pants. But I wore jeans today and I was comfortable and I believe they are better than my old ways. *gasps in horror* just joking!!!!!! *smiles* I got so many compliments and questions today as to why I decided to wear them and saying that they were not provocative or immodest and they were a tasteful way to wear jeans. I also had the opportunity to share why I usually wear skirts or dresses, because its so hard to find a modest and decent pair of pants! I love to be feminine and have that defined in my clothing. So I was able to dress modestly in pants when I needed to wear them. I wore the pair of jeans I found at the thrift store that I posted about here.



I did not wear this top for most of my day. Today my choir had our last rehearsal and we wore white shirts, I wore a white blouse. The same one I am wearing here with these jeans and the same necklace I am wearing here. I also wore a pink sweater that my dear friend hannah gave me. Then we had some more dear dear friends over for dinner when I got home from the thrift store, DMV(and no I did not get my permit), my mom was getting the license plates for our new trailer! We have one now for our civil war living history events! God is so good!!! We went to choir at the college at PHC and then to a party at some friends from choirs house celebrating our great finish of the year!
I also wore my favorite fall/winter sweater, as its been cold today! Its a moss green and very comfy and warm! My parents bought it for me from Nordstrom.com for christmas a few years ago and I just love it! the one thing I own from nordstrom in my closet besides a trench coat. The two things I own from them I just love! they are pricey though!

Details of the top I bought today at the thrift store for only $5.00!!!! I love purple and I have been wanting another purple top! I have one and now I have 3 actually! I bought this one and another one today at another thrift store. We have 2 thrift stores we love to shop at in Purcellville, VA.
My denim shoes, they have knots if you can't tell in the pic on them and they go great with the new jeans! I am happy about that! I bought them at offbroadway shoe warehouse. I love that store!

Also here are some of my finds at the thrift stores today. I found more great books and of course my top! Along with a great hankie, which I plan to remake into a collar for my civil war sheer dress. My sister did this for one of her dresses and now I want to try it!

This song book I thought was so sweet with its cover and it is all apparently songs that are classics according to my mother, who is a piano and voice teacher. The lady who wrote them was born in 1862 according to the small biography about her in the front of it. She apparently had her own sheet music and book shop in her home and taught music lessons for voice and piano. I thought it was sweet story! Her husband taught her to sing! It was only 5 dollars and is from the early 1900's! I found this book for only 1 dollar and it intrigued me by the title, as that verse in Matthew is one of my favorites! I can't wait to dive into it once I finish other books! Its called City on a Hill by Phillip Graham Ryken.
Here is the hankie, its hard to see the details, but its the little lace edge I loved and would be great material for a collar! It was only 2 dollars! I was thrilled!

I was intrigued by this story, when I was younger in elementary school my mother had us read this and I did not care for it and never finished it! Now I want to read it, as I believe the Red Badge of Courage is about the american civil war. I love american history and my dad says its a great read! He loves it. So I will try it! It was only 50cents! love the price!

I was just appalled that anyone would get rid of this one!!!! I love american literature and this is a treasure! All the way home in the car from choir I read a few of the stories and parts that are small paragraphs of information about each author! It was great to get dates and the stories of the authors lives as well as their essays, stories, and poems in one volume! I read parts of Thomas Jeffersons autobiography and loved it! I also read one of the letters John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail. We just watched some of the John Adams mini series as a family and it is also a great series! I love seeing american history come alive through series where the stories are accurate, great acting, and great period clothing! Reading their actual journals, letters, and all is even better though!

I also read some of a lady named Rebecca's article she wrote during the american civil war about the factories in the north. It was horrible some of the stories and she definately painted a picture, but its accurate I can not tell. She apparently was friends with Louisa May Alcotts father and other famous persons. She became a Lawyer later in life. And was married with many children.

This volume has many different eras of history in it with all the stories, essays, and even documents such as the Declaration of Independance, the Bill of Rights, and many other of our documents that our fore fathers used to give us our liberty! Its just so refreshing to me to hear about how our country came about under a christian and very just way!

Oh and it was only 50 cents! I was so happy!

Well that is all for now! But I will try and get a post in tomorrow or the next few days about my sewing project I have been doing. You shall see it soon! :)

In Christ,

Rebecca

Week in feminine dress Day 3

Hey everyone!

Well I forgot to post my outfit for yesterday. But over at the sense and sensibility forum, they are doing a week in feminine dress, where you wear feminine and modest clothing for a week. Even though I already strive to do so, I thought I would share with everyone what I am wearing. So here it todays outfit.

The outfit I posted on monday was day 1 of the challenge. hehe and you can see my closet behind me! its pretty organized. I spent a while yesterday fixing it up some yesterday. I had put away some sweaters that I had to get back out since it turned cold today.

The yellow sweater is the gap brand, but I got it for free when I was helping with a christian clothing drive at my church. I love helping people get their own clothing and it was fun to be able to go through clothing and get what I wanted after the event was over. I found a lot of gems!


I love love love this necklace!!! Ashley Nicole over at bramblewood fashion posted about her own and I then fell in love with it! :) My aunt and uncle gave it to me for my birthday in april.

My skirt is from new creation apparel, which you can see the link to under my favorite links at the bottom of my blog.

I also wanted to share some poems that I found this week that I thought were loving and uplifting.

"Be with me Lord, where e'r my path may lead;
fulfil thy word, supply my every need;
Help me to live each day more close to thee.
And, O dear Lord, I pray abide with me.
In all I think or speak or do,
Whatever way my steps are bent,
God shape and keep me strong and true
Courageous, cheerful, and content."

-unknown from the book,"Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul" compiled by Mudge

"Give me this day a little work to occupy my mind;
A little suffering to sanctify my spirit; and
dear Lord, if thou canst find
Some little good that I may do for thee
I shall be glad, for that will comfort me.
Mind, Spirit, hand, I will lift all to thee."

-unknown from the same book

God bless and have a wonderful tuesday!

In Christ,

Rebecca

All photos are the property of Lindsey Mae and Rebecca Ann and may only be used with permission.

Thrift store finds and my reading list

Hey everyone!

I am sorry for the long quiet here on my blog. Its been very busy with school, life, graduation invitations underway, graduation photos being done by a very good friend my sister and I's yesterday. We are trying to settle at a new church. Its been crazy! But here I am with some updates and fun things going on in my life.

On thursday after my choir class my mother and I treated ourselves to a visit to the thrift store in Purcellville, VA. We love this thrift store as the people are so nice and helpful and it goes to a good cause, hospice care. My found a great pair of sailor, wide leg jeans for only $6.00 among other treasures and items I have wanted and needed for a while. :) I was thrilled as they fit loosly, but not too tightly, which is so hard to find!!! They are pretty darn cute too, having the cute button and they look great with my crisp white blouse and pearls!

My mother spotted a purse that to her looked like the Vera Bradley purse that I had always wanted, but I said mom no way it can't be the real thing!! But then we looked it over and yes it was a vera bradly in mint condition!!!! It was only $22.00 dollars compared to the price of $50.00 or whatever I would have had to pay. I had always admired the brown and turquoise design and now I am the proud of owner of one!!! I used my birthday money by the way for all these purchases that normally I would not buy. I can't afford even thrift store prices for things lots of times.


Look at all that room for my wallet, tissue holder made by my sister, Bible, notebook, and even more! I love the contrasting fabric on the inside too!

I love how it has 2 pockets in the front under the flap. That way I have easy access to my cell phone and other essentials I need to get to quickly. No more digging around in the bottom of my old purse!! I will still keep my trusty yellow spring purse and my fall/winter red purse though. But this new one is so much better for my needs!

I also was able to get this cute brown and turquoise tote that is Dress Barn brand for only $9.00. It was a great find for all my school and other pleasure books to carry to classes and everywhere else I go! I have been wanting something besides my canvas tote bag or a back pack and this is the answer. Love love love it!

Then I was able to find this little brown purse! Can you see a theme?!! Brown is amazing and I love it! This will be great for church or other nicer occasions when I don't need a big purse. I think it was $8.00, but its prada brand!!! I think that is designer?! correct me if I am wrong.


My mother also found this cute shirt and I snatched it up. I normally would not wear this brand, but I did not realize that it was American Eagle brand. There stuff is usually not so modest or decent, but I liked this top with another shirt underneath. Oh and guess what it was on the clearanced rack for $1.00!

And I wanted to share with you all what I am currently reading again. I finished Castaways of the Flying Ducthman by Jaques a few weeks ago, as well as A Heart for God by Ferguson.

Now I have started What is a Healthy Church? by Mark Dever and I love it. The pastor at the church we are currently attending gave 2 copies to our family and I have learned a lot and been encouraged by this book. I only have 2 chapters to go and I started last monday. I will probably finish it tomorrow.

I just bought The Case for a Creator at the thrift store and it was only 50cents! They have the best buys there! :) I started it and its great! I only read the first few pages on the way home from the store, but I plan to read more soon.

I decided to re-read a favorite of mine. Stepping Heavenward by Mrs Elizabeth Prentiss and I just adore it! I guess everyone says it but Katy was so much like me and I am still am a lot like her. I highly recommend this book! I plan to get my own copy soon, this is my families copy from the Lamplighter book company. You can also get a paper back from amazon.com as well.

For school I am reading John Locke's The Second Treatise of Government. Its an essay on why Monarchy is not good and not a great way to govern a country. I find it quite fascinating and Locke was also a devout christian as well. A big plus!

God bless and another post Lord willing sometime this week about sewing and clothes and the like!

In Christ,

Rebecca