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!

Our Christmas

Hey everyone!

Here are some pictures from my families Christmas. I hope yours was also merry and bright with laughter and joy as we worshipped our Lord the One who saved us by giving us His Son! Praise God for Jesus Christ!

 I made my mother these napkins for our Christmas dinner table.

 There will be similar ones in my etsy shop when I open it next week. They are made of linen and cotton as well as vintage fabrics from our scrap baskets.

 They can be fancy or for every day use as seen in the above photos. We used them for a casual breakfast in our pj's and a fancy one in our nice clothing for dinner later that day. Here is the outfit I wore for Christmas day and eve. I bought the cloche hat from FeltFancy Etsy Store and love love love her sewing job! Its a gorgeous cloche and goes with everything I wear really! Sorry the pictures could not be turned, so they are side ways. Oh well! I also received the wool plaid skirt from my dear parents Christmas eve in time to wear with my new cloche to the evening service. It was perfect! I adore this vintage treasure. It was bought from Dalatlanta etsy store and I adore it! It was a great price and in time and is well made. I believe it is from the 1950's, which is my favorite vintage era!!

                                    
 Below you can see it with another skirt that my sister made for my to wear last christmas and I love it as well! It gives a more funky modern look to the outfit I believe than the more old fashion 30's look of the plaid skirt. The jacket I also bought recently from the PX on the army base when we went renew my military I.D. since my dad is a retired veteren. I love the PX! Its almost like a marshalls or a Ross for you civilians. :) All discounted clothing.

Above and below our Christmas feast. I thought you all would love seeing my mothers german dishes with Christmas trees on them and all the italian crystal glass wear. :) We go fancy for Christmas.

My sister lighting all our candles above. :)

Well have a wonderful rest of the first day of new year and I can't wait to go and start my new journal and I am loving Josh Grobans new CD Illuminations. :)

In Christ,

Rebecca

Thanksgiving is here and Christmas gift progress!

Hi everyone!
I know all of you are probably not blogging today or reading blogs, but its been a lazy morning for me besides getting some christmas gifts finished for friends. We have not even started baking or cooking our dinner, but the turkey is in the oven. Now to get to those pies, casseroles, and setting the table while listening to christmas music. I always look forward to thanksgiving I believe even more than christmas sometimes. Here is tutorial I used to do christmas gifts this morning with my tea cups I thrifted a while ago.

My sewing box, that a friend made for me last year. I love it! Its so handy to put all my needles, thread, and sizzors inside of!

The traditional tea cup pin cushion

 The gravy boat pin cushion, its not too big I don't believe. I love the way this photo turned out! And I don't do great pictures, our camera is awesome!

                                                                 The retro pin cushion

                                                            The whole clan all together

 What do I do to stay sane while I study for US History 1 clep exam I do my scarves while reading. I also started besides my civil war sontag above in lavendar a scarf for a friend out of this crazy yarn below. Its a lot prettier in real life of course! :) I also finished The Children of Cloverly, which is a great little story from the Lamplighter company. I would highly recommend it! all their stories are to inspire to be more and more as our Savior is! I was encouraged and loved reading it while knitting. I am in love with knitting now that I can actually do it thanks to God Almightly alone for helping me to get it! :)

I also read The Power and Freedom of Forgiveness last night by John MacArthur. I am still in awe of the Lord because He forgives us and died for us when we don't deserve anything! We are so sinful, yet He loves us even more than we could imagine! Have a happy day today and may you all realize and be in awe once again of God's gifts to us and especially the blessing of His Son who died to save us from our sins! God bless!

Rebecca

Christmas, winter, and sewing

Hey everyone!

We we are back home to good old virginy safe and sound as of an hour ago. We found some wonderful antiques and vintage things in West VA and I wanted to share what I found with you all. Besides fabric and awesome aqua tights at walmart along with some comfy new black comfy pj pants, I found some lovely tea cups to use for gifts for christmas. I am going to make some things for my dear friends who sew out of these beauties. They cost me a grand total of only $6.00 for all 4 tea cups. Get this at one thrift store one of them was $1.00, one was 50 cents and one was 25 cents. Then at another thrift store another one was $4.00 and I could not pass it up as it was my friends personality all over! So it was money well spent and I have all the supplies to finish the craft/sewing project already. Can you guess what I am sewing up with these tea cups?! Well I will not tell as some of my friends may guess and then know what I am giving them. :)

 The two above are so different, but so beautiful! I love the big floral and the simple little floral.

 I love the antique style of the tea cup and gravy boat. I thought I could still use the gravy boat for this project as it was so beautiful and not too big at all.

 Last night I had the urge while listening to Josh Grobans christmas CD called Noel to cut some paper snow flakes. At my church I am planning to makes with some children from our church as well as children from Prison fellowship families who we are having a christmas party for in December. Its a great ministry and if you have not heard of prison fellowship!

 I thought it gave a wintry look to my room and made me more in the christmasy mood even though its not thanksgiving quite yet. I am content with it raining leaves all day instead of snow. :)

 I have been playing christmas music off and on for 2 weeks now and this past weekend it was so fun to sing christmas carols with a friend of mine. She took this picture above of me playing while we sang together.

 I had the inspiration from some friends this past weekend to sew ribbon onto my civil war corset as well and now it dawns some red ribbon to make it a little more fun. My dear sister Bethany Lynn made this corset for me. I love it and no they are not uncomfortable and they are not torture devices. They are much better than the modern undergarments of today I believe actually! So much more comfortable to wear and supportive. They are much warmer too for these cold months. I wear mine under a sweater all the time at home.

I used polyester ribbon and yes my fellow living historians and reenactors I was farby doing this, but I did not want to choke up the money for ribbons that were silk at the moment and I will be changing them out for accurate ones in the future. No I do not want to be farby, but since this was just fun for me and no one will see it at events I did it. I would never ever use anything polyester for anything else on my period clothing. I will never use things such as this on my dresses or other undergarments. This was just a fun thing that will probably never be seen and will be changed in a few months I predict. :)

Well have a lovely day and I will be posting again hopefully by the end of the weekend pictures of my every day outfits as well as about the reeactment we are doing on saturday.

God bless and In Christ,
Rebecca

Sewing projects, reading, crafting

Hi everyone! Its been a while since I have posted. But I am still here! :) Doesn't every blogger say that once in a while I am still alive.

Well I have been sewing and pondering christmas gifts as well as a wool coat for myself out of this pattern. I love the light blue one on the bottom left. That is the one I have been sewing up with my sister and a friends help with fitting and morfing the pattern into something I loved and fit me. I will be posting pictures as soon as I finish it. I am sewing it up out of some soft and warm charcoal grey wool with some vintage 1930's red floral as the lining I got in PA a few years back. Don't you love it when you can use fabrics out of your stash. I sure do! But it seems to never get smaller. :)

I have also been pondering this evening crafts as well as sewing projects to do for christmas gifts for my friends and family. I have found many cute and beautiful ideas for all of them! I loved these two sites, mmmcrafts blog  and sew mama sew holiday gift ideas. They both always have lots of inspiration for me for gifts!

Well I am off to read a little treasure I found at the thrift store a few years back and its called The Plymouth Adventure, its from the perspective of John Alden who married Priscilla on the Mayflower and also how William Bradford leads the seperatists and other english settlers to North America and they establish the Plymouth colony. Colonial history fascinates me and its been so much to read about it in depth for my american history 1 clep, which I am taking in december. I also loved reading more about it since we have been doing colonial living history now.

Tomorrow we are heading up to west VA to get some organic free range meat from a friend who has his own cattle and stop by the big thrift store in west VA and stop by some friends homes. I am excited as well as glad to do my knitting as well as study and read in the car on the way up.

Have a lovely evening! I also did finish the week in feminine dress with a bang. I wore my 1930's cloche hat on sunday and it was funny getting so many compliments from men and women in my church. Hats are not worn a lot anymore and they liked my vintage look. I have been wearing skirts and dresses as usual, but we had company from thursday till yesterday, so pictures did not get taken. Later in the week I hope to take some of my outfits for each day to make up for it Lord willing. Hopefully pictures of my finished coat and on saturday we have another civil war reenactment. I put some new trim on my civil war coat as well. So pictures of that coming soon.

I will leave you with these words.

" Why are afraid of being persecuted for being zealous for what is good? Even if you are persecuted for righteousness sake you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts regard the Lord as holy, always being ready to give a defense for the hope that is in you; yet do it with respect and gentleness, with a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. For it is good to suffer for doing good if it be Gods will, than for doing what is evil." - 1 Peter 3:13-17

I have been pondering these verses as I am challenged to share the hope that is in me with good words and actions.

In Christ,
Rebecca

A Twirly Skirt

Hi everyone!

Yes the colonial living history event went splendidly yesterday! Praise the Lord from whom all blessings flow for a smooth event and lots of fun and fellowship. I do not have pictures to post yet, but I hope to soon. In the mean time here are some pictures of a skirt I sewed and my sister Bethany Lynn drafted the pattern for last July. It is a full circle skirt with godets. I really want one in my size sometime. :)

It was a really good experience for me to sew this skirt as it was a lot of pinning for the circle at the bottom as well as lots of seam ripping. I enjoy working with this loud and joyful fabric as well! It was a gift for a friends birthday and she loved it! These photos were also taken by her. She does lovely photography and lots of her photos on my blog are her own. Thanks for the photos!

In Christ,

Rebecca

A gift for a friend

Hello everyone!

These past few days I have been little by little finishing up this project for a friends birthday. I was quite suprised and please how it turned out. I thought the fabric might be a little boring on its own and then I found the perfect cranberry bias tape for the pockets on this lovely apron. The fabric was a donation from my sisters stash of fabric and the bias tape and thread were both free from friends. So this project did not cost me much except my time. I am planning on sewing up another one of this pattern for myself! But I sadly need some fabric. I just don't have any fabric that will suit, all my 20 peices I own are destined for a certain project. So I want to go and see what I can find online or at Joann. The pattern is Simplicity 4692 view A. It also has a matching childs size option. How fun! maybe someday I can sew that up for someone too.

My sister and I and our parents are leaving for West VA tomorrow, so I may not be posting until August. Unless I have some time while I am on vacation to post! I might suprise you all! :) See you all soon and have a lovely thursday!

God bless,

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

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!