Thrift store finds and Granny Squares

Hey gals!

I found an amazing find when I stopped by the thrift store today on my daily walk. A pendleton wool skirt!! Its robins egg blue and goes oh so well with my red belt and red purse I also scored.

 It gave me a happier mood to put on this ensemble. Sorry I could not get a picture of me in the ensemble because my sister has the camera at her internship and these are photos on my ipod. Not the best, but better than nothing.

 A friend of mine is having friends of hers make 12" by 12" squares for blankets she will make to give to missionaries over seas to give to the poor. I decided to help her out in this endeavor and made one square today and started on another. I love purple, blue, white, and green and brown!

 The best part you can mediate on Scripture and use up your scrap yarns at the same time. :)

God bless!
Rebecca

A new gadget and fun projects

 Hey everyone! So I am the blessed new owner of an ipod touch! Yes I am so excited and am amazed at this little gadget, I keep having to tell myself to back away from it more than not, but its much better than my ipod mini from 2008 that died recently. I am happy to have this!

 I made a crocheted temporary case for it before my otter case came in the mail from amazon.com today. I think I will still use the cute crocheted case just for fun when its not in use. I am loving this otter case! Its my favorite color and its definately going to keep my new gadget from getting broken I think. Thanks to my dear friend who told me about this great new case! I am definately not tech savy and had no idea it existed. It was $30.00 of my Christmas money well spent. :)

 I just finished this scarf for my grandmother, yes better late than never. It was to supposed to be her Christmas gift and it still is, but its not getting in the mail till tomorrow. There was so much going on I did not get it done till today. I love the way it turned out! I am not sure its easy to tell, but I strung glass clear beads on the yarn and put them into my crocheted handiwork randomly. She saw me make a scarf similar to this one for some friends for Christmas years ago and loved it. So I made her one too. :)

 I thought I would model it for you all too. :)

My music stand today, I was working on my concone exercises and The Lass With the Delicate Air, which I sang for my vocal exam in December as well as a new song I love called The Lord is My Shepard. I adore that song! Its so comforting to sing and beautiful. I will post more photos of my song writing progress and some other music I am working on soon.

In Christ,
Rebecca

What I have been up to lately.....

crocheting, knitting, and sewing up a storm thats what I have been doing! Now that we have a functional craft/sewing room I love sewing in there!

 So bookmarks for my etsy store have been done with cotten yarns that are vintage.
                                     
 I also received an antique book from my parents for Christmas that is a book of biographies and quotes from women of the past. Its wonderful and I want to republish it someday. Its from 1856.

 You can see that the bookmarks work nicely in this little volume.

 Coasters will also be available in the etsy store soon.

 And there are more styles coming along that will be a suprise in the coasters. I have my own little inventory shelf in our craft room for all these items that will be for sale. :)

 What my family has been up to a lot lately! We are game people! We love playing games in the evenings and this one is a new favorite. Its called Qwircle and is for 4 players, so big families this may not be a favorite unless you do teams. We are a family of 4. Its so easy even your little ones who are 4 or 5 could play.

 I also made some cloth bins for all my new yarn that is for my shop to crochet and knit up some pretties.

 Josh Groban has been a big help to keep me on task and helped me to be calm while studying for my clep exam for US History 1 on thursday. Pray for me if you remember, its at 3pm eastern time I will be doing the exam. I am at peace because I passed my practice exam today though! Praise the Lord!

 I did little rose buds on this bin above with rick rack and love the result!

This one with vintage ribbons and rick rack as well.

Well God bless and more about the etsy store and the new to us craft/sewing room soon.

My Bed room make-over

Hello everyone!
(Oh and yes thats my cat Felix on the new afghan I recently finished! You can see pictures of afghan here.)
You may remember that I posted about a month ago that I was making new curtains as well as putting a regular floor bed back into my room. Well I finally finished putting my old bed and my mother's antique desk into my room. I love the way it turned out! You can see how it was before here. I am so happy not to have a loft bed and stainless steel furniture anymore! I have yet to paint the walls my new light blue theme color, but all the new furniture is and in place. Lord willing I will get to paint before June! :)



My desk is my mother's antique writing desk from Germany. We used to live there for 3 years from when I was 2 till I was 6 years old. I don't remember much of living there, but my mother bought some real treasures! She has given me this desk to keep!! I absolutly love the cherry wood!!! Its my favorite stain! Can you tell??? My hope chest and dresser are similar in stain color! :)

My new/old bed. I had this bed when I was a little girl and then when I was 13 we bought modern loft bed, but now I have sold my loft bed and put my old fashion bed back in! I love the look a lot better!
My night stand was from my sister, she got a new night stand and gave it to me! I love how it has a book shelf for my current reading, so I can grab it and read in bed!!

My current reading list for pleasure consists of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War H.W. Crocker the 3rd, which I received for christmas. Biblical Manhood and Womanhood by Piper and Gruben, Shakespeares play As You Like It, Stepping Heavenward by Prentis, almost finished with Persuasion by Jane Austen. I just finished A Heart for God by Ferguson yesterday, as well as finished Castaways of the Flying Dutchman by Jaques last week. I loved both of them and I would read A Heart for God over and over again! So much to glean from it! I am also reading Stepping Heavenward for the second time. I read it 3 years ago and loved it. I still do! I plan to start Womanly Dominion by Mark Chanski tomorrow. I bought it at the thrift store for only 50cents!!! I was so excited, I had been hearing it was a great read!
My dresser is next to my night stand and I posted more details about it here. I got it for free on the side of the road! I could not believe someone would get rid of such a great antique treasure!!!

At the end of my bed is my hopechest and my books shelves are above the hope chest. I love my books and I also keep all my music and stationary and cards on this shelf as well.

My hope chest is also cherry wood and was given to me by my parents for my 16th birthday! It is filled to the brim! I have been storing more items in my closet and Lord willing I get more supplies and items for my future abode Lord willing I will store them under my bed.

So right now I love it, but I really want the walls to math my new curtains and hope chest cushions! I have a theme of blue and white going on with the lamp also having those colors. Soon I will paint!

Tomorrow I have much for to post! I can't believe it had been 2 weeks yesterday that I had not updated! Its been so busy! I also am sorry as I can not figure out how to get my things back on the side of my blog, instead of the bottom. If anyone has any sugguestions for gettings widgets and my profile back to the right side like it should be let me know! It would be most appreciated.

God bless,
Rebecca Ann

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

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