A Birthday Alternative to Cake (tart!)

Hey Ya'll! 

My sister Bethany had a birthday in September and I decided to make her a gluten free and sugar free alternative to a birthday cake. I thought to myself what would sound good and taste yummy for a b-day celebration that was just as good as cake? 

Then the idea came to my head, why not do a fruit pudding tart?! I had always dreamed of making some small personal tarts for myself and friends and family, but there was never an occasion. Now was my chance.

So I went to the dictionary/resource of all resources Google. :) I Googled fruit tart and up came this lovely blog. Then I wanted to do an arrangement of fruit on top that was different than her lovely tart. It was pretty, but I did not have raspberries and I wanted to use the fruit we had in the freezer and fridge.  I wanted to be frugal and not have to go to the grocery to buy anything and I did not have to.

So once again I went to Mr. Google and found some fun pictures for inspiration. Yes I know I should start using Pinterest and I might have found something even more epic, but alas I do not want to succumb myself to the temptation to be addicted to that lovely attraction. Although it sounds lovely, it could turn into a not so lovely addiction for me. ;) I regress.

Anyways, so I found this, this , this, this, and this to be very inspiring and helpful in figuring what design I wanted to do with the fruit I already had available.

Here are a few pictures of the 3 different tarts I made over the course of two different days of celebrating.

My dad even thought they were delicious and so did the birthday gal and my mother. We were all happy even without sugar or wheat in there. It was still tasty with a little honey in the vanilla pudding I made from scratch that filled the middle.

I used the crust recipe from the Gluten free fix blog and I used the Creamy vanilla pudding recipe from the Heavenly Homemakers blog. Both are so so so yummy! I substituted the almond meal flour in the crust for raw almonds, which I just chopped up into fine flour in our Vitamix. I also substituted honey instead of sucanat in the pudding since we are doing sugar free tarts. You really should make them sometime with or without the sugar. ;)

I hope you all are having a lovely day! And just to be honest this is the first day in quite sometime I have gotten up when its still dark outside to start my day and I am very excited about all the things I have gotten accomplished before 10am. ;) Am I the only one who has had a hard time getting into a good morning routine of getting up early? Its only by Gods grace and help I was able to. Praise the Lord for His help!

God bless,

Rebecca

Some birthday treats

 I thought I would share some gifts I was given for my birthday from my parents. They are all thrifted except for the books and the wool felt hat from Colonial Williams-burg.I adore the cookbook! The egg salad sandwiches were a hit with my family! :) I can't wait to learn to knit socks as well! I also have learned how to darn socks! Pictures coming soon!

My mother found these lovely plates and suprised me with them! They are a set of 7, one of them was missing. I believe the 2nd green one, but I still love them! They are german. The bread pan was also a great find! I can't wait to try it out. These will all be in my hope chest in case you are wondering.

I love this scarf! Its so warm and goes with a lot of things I already own.

I will wear the hat for colonial/ american revolution and french and indian war reenacting. I can't wait to add my own ribbons to it.

This belt as well was thrifted and I adore the beading! I can't wait to have a nice occasion to wear it to! It goes well with my two black thrifted dresses.

Have a lovely wednesday everyone!

Life update for April

 Hello everyone! I realize I have not been posting frequently at all! Life has been so full and God is so good to me and my family! My grandparents were able to come to visit us for my 20th birthday on the 6th of april! I was so excited! We got to see D.C. and stay in the Baltimore National Harbor on the water for my birthday. Below my sister and I on a lunch cruise we did on the Potomac in D.C.Above my grandmother and I strolling in Baltimore National Harbor.

My parents on the cruise as well. It was a lot of fun! We got to see everything in D.C. from the boat. :)

 My grandparents and my sister and I together. We were excited to get good old glory in the photos too!

 My birthday, they even put 20 candles on the cake. :) I was suprised we did not set off the fire alarm in the hotel! lol

Above sunset in Baltimore harbor. It was such great weather the whole time we were there! No rain at all. lovely! Below tulips I photographed in D.C. when we got to see the American history museum and DAR museum( daughters of the american revolution).

One of my favorite b-day gifts from my parents. A thrifted beaded purse! It carries as many as 6 big books and its great for over night trips as well. I believe they paid only $15.00 for this designer bag! I was excited. You can get great gifts at thrift stores and yard sales and you would never know unless the giver told you. :)

A friend of mine suprised me and met up with us at the american history museum. I was in the old glory exhibit and she suprised me! I had no idea she was going to get to come up for my birthday. We got to see the cherry blossoms and enjoy chatting and seeing D.C. together. My sister really does have a goo nack for suprising me. I am so easy to suprise! I am always clueless. :)

We got to go and see the national aquarium another day while my grandparents were here as well. I had never been before and it was great! I got these two decent photos of the critters. :)

I was really excited to get the above photo of the sea turtle I believe thats what he is. :)
My grandmother also suprised me with this lovely 1940's purse that was her mothers for my birthday! I was just so excited and could not believe she would give me her mothers purse. But she knows I love vintage things and will take care of it. Lord willing I can use it for a formal occasion someday. Its in mint condition! Its so special to have something that was my great grandmother and then my grandmothers and now its mine. I will be cherishing this family heir loom.

I am so blessed to have grandparents and parents that love the Lord our God with all their hearts, souls, minds, and strength! It was encouraging to hear them tell about their being called to Christ and how they have served Him through the years. I learned a lot about our family heritage as well while they were here. It was great having them even if it was only a short week.

I have been studying as well for a clep exam I will be doing on thursday the 21st. Please pray for me if you can that I would pass this exam with flying colors only because the Lord got me through it! 
Hope you all enjoyed seeing what I have been up to these past 2 weeks. More photos of another adventure coming soon! :) And I refashioned that dress I told you all about in my thrifting video. Photos coming soon.
In Christ,
Rebecca

Natural hair care and a birthday

Hi everyone,

I thought I would show some pictures of my sister and I after the fact of using baking soda and apple cider vinegar only to wash our hair for about 2 months. We have been doing it since August and we love it! My hair never felt so healthy or curly! :)

 We went to D.C. 2 weeks ago for Bethanys 18th birthday along with my parents and 2 of our best friends. Once again I do not have a camera and my friend has an amazing camera as she a professional photographer. So we got a lot of photos! Below all four of us together. Picture taken by my father.

 As you can see my hair is a lot longer than it used to be and its a lot curlier! I believe that the apple cider vinegar has helped my hair as well as the baking soda along with rose mary has darkened my hair as well as Bethanys hair. She is using the same thing and her red hair has gotten darker because the rose mary is supposed to be used for brunettes, but we share our shampoo. So her auburn hair is even more auburn.

 You can see both of our types of hair here. We got to see the national gardens as well as their tropical indoor rain forest in this picture. If any of you have any questions about hair care or our trip to D.C. do comment. This post will be more about my family than hair. :)

Happy birthday dear Beth and I am so thankful for such a wonderful, God fearing sister. I love you and may God continue to develope our relationship even closer to Him.

Oh and you can see the bag Bethany is carrying in the photos. I do not have better pictures of it, but I made it for her birthday. Wish I had close ups. :)

I thought this painting below was amazing! Our whole group was amazed at this painting! My family just finished reading through the book of Joshua together in our family Bible study and this painting put things into perspective. Its hard to imagine armies around Jericho, but you can in this painting.

Look how small the brush had to be to paint the soldiers. Quite amazing we thought.

The two harpists with the harpist painting.

I want to recreate this dress above someday! I love the puff sleeves and bow around the waist. No I will not recreate the scarey rug!!! :)

A painting of a 1860s lady! We were pleased as this gal reminded us of Bethanys civil war wool dress and red plaid apron.

And yes my parents came along too for the fun. I am so thankful for their love and kind words as they have mentored me these 19 years. They are a great example of trusting the Lord for our family and going against the current of our culture even when its hard. Love you Dad and Mom!

Latest Projects

Hello everyone!

I thought I would share some of my latest sewing projects. I am not much of a seamstress as most of you know! But I am starting to love it and wanting to be able to sewing clothing for myself and my family now. It is such a practical skill! So I sewed up a night gown for a dear friends birthday last week. I purchased the fabric at walmart a long while ago, but I loved it and its her favorite color! Blue!!

I used my favorite and one and only night gown pattern! But I made up the sleeves! I cut out the long sleeve and shortened it to be 3 quarter sleeves and I love the way that turned out! She loved it when I gave it to her on saturday! I am happy with it as well! My sister Beth did the button holes on the machine for me though, the machine hates me when it comes to button holes! Don't ask me why!!!

There it is before I wrapped it up and all!

My favorite part of making it was the gathers at the top of each sleeve! I love that effect!!

On saturday we celebrated my friend Jennifers birthday and I wore another scarf I had made on friday in about 15 minutes!!! I was able to go to Joanne on thursday after my choir class at PHC and I was so happy to find the end of a bolt of this beautiful flowy fabric!

Here is the scarf below with the rest of my fabric finds! I love the purple and the blue combo of the flowers in the scarf material! It was fun to wear going on nature trails at a lovely park with my sister, father, and friend Jennifer.

I also bought that wonderful cotten heavier weight fabric and the yellow floral for a night gown. Yes another winter night gown for next winter!!! :) It was only 4 dollars a yard and I could not resist. The purple scarf fabric was only about 5 dollars for the whole yard and the blue fabric was 12 dollars for all 2 yards of that 60 inch wide fabric. I plan to use the blue patterned fabric for a gored circle skirt! I love love love it! Light blue is my favorite color!!

I have also been working on my first quilt that I ever cut out and I never finished. My great grandmother helped me get started with sewing when my sister and I were only about 9 and 10 years old. So sewing was not totally foreign to me because of her and my sister. Now I love quilting!! My sister has been teaching me more and I am loving it. I am almost done quilting this quilt top! I will post pictures once I can get around to finishing it while watching John Adams mini series with my family later this week. Its a great little lap quilt perfect for sewing in the car or while watching a movie. :) A close up of the beautiful flannel for a new night gown next year! I also love yellow!!

The vintage pattern my sister has and is willing to let me borrow to make my light blue circle skirt!!! I am so exciting to possibly cut it out later this week once I get more school done and a shirt dress mock up complete!

Now this is a spring project I hope to get around to! But I do not know when. I love this red floral and can't wait to make it into this thrifted pattern my sister found a few years ago. I plan to make the one that is second from the left.

This silk fabric above I have made a great belt out of this striped silk already for civil war accessory with my striped dress, but I want to make that pointed belt I told you all about here. I also have a bow that I wear often with my day dress as well. So I want to make a belt that looks like the one in this picture below in time for the Fourth of July celebration in Gettysburg this summer.

So Lord willing I can get that done sometime soon!

The dress at the bottom left corner is the shirt dress mock up I am planning on working in the coming weeks. I have the mock up cut out and ready to be made and messed with to get it to fit me well. So Lord willing I can show you all that soon! I am using the fabric for my fashion fabric below! Its from walmart from a few years ago and I just love the light blue and purple! Of course my favorite color combo! can you tell!?

I can't wait to dig into this project!!! Its been on my list for spring/summer for my modern wardrobe for a while now!

God bless and no I will not have these projects in the works all of them right away! But its fun to dream and figure out what I will be sewing in the future months!

In Christ,

Rebecca