Showing posts with label knitting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label knitting. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

A view into my day

Hi everyone!

I have been sorting through photos from the past 4 months June through September and realized I have some catching up to do. So from now on I will try and post a few times a week until I can catch up on all that you all have missed. :)

For today here are some photos of one of days this past week. I had seen another lovely blogger Miss Linda do this and I enjoyed seeing what her day was like. So here is a sort of diary of my life on a typical day.

I forgot to get more photos in the evening so you will have to be content with just commentary. :)
In the morning I love to get out of "photo album" which I have turned into a memory verse card holder. I put all of verses in there I want to memorize on index cards. I have to say that I have not been doing this lately, but I have been going over verses I have memorized in the past in the mornings. This method is handy to bring with you anywhere as well!

" So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of Wisdom."-Psalm 90
I have been reminded more and more by the Lord and friends and my family that we need to remember that this life is but a vapor and so short. The Lord is at hand and He is coming again soon. Its reminded me as well to get a heart of wisdom, but not earthly wisdom that comes from myself or others, but the wisdom of the Lord.
Then I glanced over at my dresser and realized even more that I am an adult now and really have grown in the past year. I have the responsibility of getting things from the store for my mom by driving. I also have a cell phone of my own now, it updated this of the weather before I started my Bible study. Its a great feature as I am always wondering about the weather.

The red journal underneath my phone is my prayer/Bible study journal which I use each morning to write down verses I am memorizing or really want to ponder throughout the day. I have always had a journal ever since I was 13 I guess and now I love writing in them. I hope someday my children and their children will be able to glean some wisdom from the Lord from my scribbling. :)

Acts 18:9-10 " Do not be afraid but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people." 

Then I studied chapter 18 in Acts and chapter 19, I have been just really loving reading Acts. Its so encouraging and challenging!
In chapter 18, Paul was afraid to share the Gospel for fear he would be abused and persecuted again, but God said to him in a vision do not fear! How much more then should we not fear as we are not getting beaten and put in prision in the US as Paul was in Rome and other provinces. The Lord has shown me more and more that I need to share the Gospel because the days are coming when the Lord will come again. We should not hide and not tell of the hope that is in us. I must say many a time I do not share the Gospel because I am afraid, but God says do not be afraid, and we have many Christians in our cities in the US, probably more than Paul had, but he still preached the Gospel. How much more should we? These were my thoughts all day yesterday.  I felt as though I really have not been doing what I should do as a christian, I have felt as though I have not verbally shared the Good News enough.
Then I also read from Psalms 92:4-5 " For You Oh Lord have made me glad by your works; at the works of your hands I sing for joy. How great are you works Oh Lord! Your thoughts are so deep."


I read this and remembered that yes I should be joyful always because My God's works are so so great! His thoughts are so deep, too deep for me even to understand, but He wants me! His steadfast love never ever wavers for me His child. He loves me with a love no one else can ever love me with! That is a promised hope, its not a hope that is unsure, its sure!! My God loves me with a steadfast love. He will never forsake His bride!
Then I went on a run, I tend to pray while I run now. I used to listen to my ipod, but it has basically died. So now I use the time to pray and remember my God who is always with me. I feel more at peace this way and remember that He will protect me while I run through the neighborhood. Yes I do wear pants when I run, I have found its easier and warmer in the winter months. I could wear a skirt, but it gets in my way, so pants it is. I wear loose sweat pants, not so pretty, but warm and great for exercise. I have been convicted by the Lord in the past few years that its definitely not a sin to wear pants and for some things its necessary.
When I came in from my run I was cold, but at the same time hot, I hate that. But it was worth it to get a good 30 minutes of exercise. I love earl grey tea, ever since I went to England in 2009 with my sister and Jennie Chancey on the England tour I have fallen in love with the taste of tea. I have it most every day in the fall and winter months. Earl grey is my favorite type!

For my early meal I wanted some scrambled eggs made in my cast iron skillet, but I had neglected to clean it the previous day. So I thought I would do a little tutorial on how to clean your cast iron in this post. Yes this post will be a little long. :)

I clean my cast iron with sea salt, I was actually reading a magazine called Reminisce and it has stories and things that lots of elderly people send in about how they lived in the 30s-70s when they were children and young people. One lady did an article about cast iron and I tried what she said to do, which is use no soap or water to clean your cast iron! I had never heard of this, I was always using water, but no soap with a scrubber to clean it. But she said that salt has properties that are great for cleaning, so its great for clean cast iron.

So what I do is I get a dry paper towel, pour some sea salt in the dirty pan and scrub. If you have a lot of stuff that is stuck on use some sort of scrubber to get it off, but no water or soap, just the sea salt.

And here you have it! I beautiful and clean cast iron pan. :) Not using water or soap helps it to stay smooth and that way you have an anti stick coating on your pans. Its lovely isn't it! :) Cast iron just is so fun to me! I love using it and taking care of it. :)

Now if you are not going to use your cast iron pan after you clean it up, then re-season it, this means re-oiling it. I use coconut oil to oil my pans, but you can also use canola oil or vegetable oil. But coconut oil is the best I believe health wise. We only buy extra virgin, here a photos below. :)

We get it in a huge bucket way bigger than the one in the photo. We use this little bucket for storing small amounts in the house. We store all of our bulk foods in our garage. If you want to know more about getting different whole grains and other organic foods in bulk shoot me an email here- ra.stricker@gmail.com

I only use about half a teaspoon full of the coconut oil and then you melt it in the pan. Its a solid at room temps, but is a liquid at higher temps.
Here is photo of what the coconut oil does when it melts, it was hard to get a photo for some reason. But its basically a clear liquid. Then you can whatever you want, I did eggs.
My tea and my bread and eggs, yummy! Then I practiced piano for church on sunday, I am one of the pianists for the services at our church. I did not get photos of that, but I did get photos of my music for my voice practicing and from my lesson. I had to drive to my lesson as well, so I listened to my favorite group Selah in the car.
Above, on of the songs I am studying for my college vocal lessons. Its so beautiful! This song can be found in the Celtic Woman songbook. Its my favorite song I am learning right now.
Here are some photos from my lesson, the exercises I must do daily to become a better singer. They are difficult, but fun! :)

 These are from the Little Book Cocone exercise book. I also do the Big Book Cocone exercises as well. I have also been using Italian Arias as well to sing the song Alma Del Core, which is my most difficult exercise right now I believe! There are some high notes in it. :)
This one is my favorite I believe because its easier than number 8! Its funny that 8 is harder than number 9 for me. :)
I always write out a to-do list for each day or else I am lost not remembering what I need to do.
 After I do some more things on my to-do list I read this lovely book Womanly Dominion. Its so good!!! I can't put it down, its so good. I read about Abigail and how she was a woman who did not just sit and knit she was intentional for the Lord. She did not say oh the Lord will do that, she got up and moved in order for the Lord to do what He wanted to do in her life. We as women should not just be sitting around we need to be active in our faith pursuing God's will for our lives!
I also uploaded this wonderful program to my parents computer, because the family computer is right next to the piano. So I can just scoot on over to the computer and type of the music after I compose it. I believe this will be better than having to go up to my room upstairs when I have a tune that needs to be written up. So I uploaded that before I went to my lesson and after I did some music practicing and reading. I also heaped up more compost outside and remembered the gardens need tending today. Then I helped with some more chores in the house before leaving for my vocal lesson.

 My sister made us all chocolate milkshakes after dinner. It was so yummy!
In the evening Dad taught us from the WORD from Ecclesiastes and I learned a lot. I wore those earrings as well.
I changed into my princess night gown I call it since it has elaborate embroidery all over it and its red.
I did some knitting on my nubia which is a type of scarf they wore in the civil war in the fall/winter months. We have a reenactment in a week or so and I want to get it finished in time. I do that while we watched The Polar Bear king, a great movie from my childhood. It was instant on netflix which is always a plus not having to wait for it to come in the mail. My sister did some sewing a civil war dress she is sewing for a customer and my mom watched as well. Then we all went to bed. So that was my day! Sorry this is so long, but I thought it would be fun to give you glimpse into my day. :)

In Christ,
Rebecca

Thursday, January 20, 2011

My little Friend

My cat Felix while I was knitting some more loverlies for my new etsy store and reading the Patriots History of the US for my college classes. It was a cozy arrangement. And no the etsy store is not opened yet. I plan to open it by the end of the week. So be alert for the blog post that will tell all about it.

In Christ,
Rebecca

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

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.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

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