Guess what! The real new member of the family I wanted to talk about has arrived!  I’m an auntie again!!!!  

New life is precious. Always. ~~~ New life is beautiful. Always.

New life is amazing. Always. ~~~ New life is awe’ing, mind blowing. Always.

Only by the grace of an amazing Creator God do we get to experience new life, are we allowed to value and appreciate new life.

Baby is a girl. A sweet, beautiful, amazingly cute newborn baby girl.

I now have 4 nieces (2 sharing a birthday) & 1 nephew. I am blessed.

For being a week overdue, it was a FAST process. Less than an hour from knowing something might be happening to baby being born. After we all saw baby & mom and knew all was well, we just kind of sat there stunned, comparing notes. Checking texts and phone call logs to even try to piece it all together.

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To some degree this is what I envision the inside of my brain to look like: Tangled thoughts, ideas, visions, choices – all mixed together with mind-numbing snow {fear, indecision} and God’s light shining through. I want others to see God’s light through me and the decisions I make. The big picture is really pretty – I want to imagine God thinks the branches of my life – all the decisions and outcomes – are pretty. Of course, I have ugly sin I make the choice to keep covered by Jesus’ blood and God’s grace. I have to choose to look at the pretty and not focus on the sin. He has provided the opportunity, I just have to choose to accept it. It’s a gift already there, provided for each of us.

[13-16] Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom—it’s animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.

[17-18] Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. [James 3:13-18, The Message – emphasis mine]

Today I’m keeping it really simple – picture and scripture. My mind is pondering lots and I’m off to sew.

I chose to write my series about 31 Days of Life. Today is day 29 of the 31 Days series.

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In my mind, the rest of the year is a holiday, a celebration – preparing for Thanksgiving; Thanksgiving; preparing for Christmas; Christmas; then a New Year. This year in preparation for Thanksgiving I am wanting to post something I am thankful for each day leading up to Thanksgiving, by publicaly giving thanks.

Too often I forget to say what I am thankful for out loud.

I love this season. Slowing down. Warm & cozy is the norm. LOTS of creating. We pretty much make all Christmas gifts, and this is when we start. Thanksgiving and Christmas are seasons of giving and sharing.

Today I am giving thanks for: Less Wind. Electricity. Water.

Less Wind: Today is less windy than yesterday. I have been able to be online and catch up on the computer. {but as soon as I post I’m going back to sewing. almost done with CJs blanket}

Electricity: Yesterday it flickered a lot. Yet today we have it. So many on the East Coast are still working without it. It is a simple joy I tend to take for granted sometimes. Even with no internet I can still sew, when I have electricity.

Water: Often the wind causes electricity to go out, which then means limited water. I am thankful to have clean water to drink and use freely. So many don’t.

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Today I am Giving Thanks for: Children. Time. Childhood

Children: I am so thankful for my children. They are indeed a heritage from the Lord. As hard as being a single mom is, I’m glad I have them. Last night was just me. That doesn’t happen very often {maybe 5 or 6 times}; it was quiet. I didn’t watch a movie or even have music with words. But I’m ready to have them back today. I can’t imagine having split custody. I know my growth has happened because I am a mom and just had to keep going. No matter what I felt like.

Time: I have had lots of time with my daughter this week. Unexpectedly we had three days. at home. {sigh}  Not only did the non-moving pace do me wonders, we had time to just be. Vince had several opportunities come up, since Wednesday morning he has been here for 12 hours – 9:30pm to 9:30am on Thursday. But it’s been good. He got friend time and Christine & I had some good connect time. We needed that time after the brutal week last week – honestly, since she turned 12 it’s not been that great. The last several days felt normal – as in before she turned 12 – it was awesome! {See below for more about my thankfulness for time this week}

Childhood: I ache for children to get to have an innocent childhood. Our culture, society, is rushing them to grow up so fast. I often feel like a stick-in-the-mud for saying ‘no’ to so much of what today expects is normal. I don’t believe we need to be on the go constantly. I see so many kids who are just tired. and not able to appreciate whatever event they are because they’re focused on the next. No matter how much they forward to something, it’s all about the next event. plan. place they have to be.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Because we got to stay home {the time I mentioned above in Giving Thanks} the last 3 days I got to sew. Christine had asked me to make her a quilt for her bed. In 20 mins she picked out all the material – over 2 months ago. She has been waiting patiently. When she picked the material I really didn’t like it. I kept thinking ‘Ick! these don’t go together’, but it was all material she really wanted. So I got it. I don’t usually start with a pattern, only an idea. So there weren’t right or wrong quantities to get of each – just is there enough or not?

It started out as being a quilt for her bed. She wanted a disappearing 9 patch. then a quilt to curl up in. then just a “big blanket to cover everything, including my toes.” {I’ve made her two other quilts – one for her crib, one for the toddler bed. neither are quite big enough}.

But I love it! She did an amazing job with colors and patterns. She just grabbed and didn’t have a favorite — it takes me f.o.r.e.v.e.r. to pick material and then I’m tired of it before I finish.

My sets of 3 strips sewn together and cut to make the 9 patch. About here I decided I didn’t like 9 patch blocks after all. {I’ve mentioned loving flowers….never noticed all the flowers around the head of my bed. 3 in frames, on the lamp, and the wood box says ‘petite fleurs’. and yes, my iron has turquoise duct tape holding the handle together :-)}

At this point, I really didn’t like 9 patches. But my points were lining up — love my new machine! Also, I thought why on earth am I going to cut these apart to make the disappearing 9 patch?!  But I did for several. Until I was sick of trying to turn them the right way – what a pain! I sewed many together wrong. I did not pick them out & re-sew, I just kept going! Have to admit I’m appreciating shedding the perfectionist in me. I get things done quicker when I let go a bit… 

When I started this not-twin size disappearing 9 patch quilt…. I made the 9 patch blocks then started cutting them apart & re-sewing together. Decided I didn’t like doing that any more. so there are 9 patch blocks in the center, outlined in a tone-on-tone print brown {from material I had here at home – good thing I had it too! Even though I don’t remember what I actually bought it for.}, then the disappearing 9 patch blocks, with more of the brown to fill in the spaces….

The finished result of all my “mistakes”…My points don’t match, I didn’t measure – which is why there are brown chunks…also noticing I goofed the left corner spacing up. uh, duh.  oh well. Personally, I think the materials are a bit too busy for the disappearing 9 patch. around the edges they are fine, but I think the whole top would have been gaggy.

For the back I used one piece of material. Of course, I didn’t measure, it wasn’t wide enough, so I added 3″ strips on both sides. I did not do a binding. I sewed inside out and flipped it. then sewed around the edges. I stitched in the ditch around the center brown piece and did blanket ties for the rest.

This is a close up of the backside flipped over to the front. The curvy is what I stitched around the outside edge after flipping it right side out. The straight stitch in the ditch is what I did around the center brown square.

So what is it? it isn’t all quilted. it isn’t all tied. there is no outer binding. does that make it a quilt or a blanket? Who knows, but it covers all of her! It is mismatched and she loves it. She is 12 and wanted a blanket to wrap up in, made by mom. She wanted it in time for the lock-in she went to last night. Score – I had it tied, folded, and in the bag 3 hours before she left. Nailed it!

I’m linking up for the first time with Studio JRU for ‘in the studio…sneak peek friday‘. The intent is to share what we’ve created during the week and encourage others who are creating too.

**I sent my camera off last night. I’m hoping they are able to fix it to be the way so many talk about their D3100’s or deem it unfixable and give me the money so I can start all over with purchasing one. I really hope this is not a camera I can’t ever trust – or do anything about.**

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So, once I got the labels done – I printed it on a sheet of labels I had and used about 18″ of contact paper, also something I have on hand…so, essentially free :-D, my kind of project!

I simply put the label on my containers, then so I could wipe them off and re-name if wanted, I covered them with a piece of contact paper.

  

I didn’t know some of my flours need to be refrigerated, so I did a little rearranging there too.  I believe with the labels my Gluten Free stuff is less likely to get contaminated.  My family just doesn’t get it, not to be mean, but just not thinking about it.  I’m hoping with the red containers and ‘GF’ written on containers that are needing to stay Gluten Free it helps them stop and think before using.  For twelve years mom’s pantry has been my go-to if I ran out, and my pantry has been her go-to…that is a hard habit to break.   I’m not even trying to break it, just re-train.  I’m hoping with the shelves labeled my kids will be better about helping keep the pantry clean.

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I have to say it was really strange to be in a bridal shop while my daughter tried on bridesmaid dresses.  In the end we found a dress that was a really pretty green and a style she liked that more or less fit on top.

As you can see it was rather long and “old” for an 11 year old.  {yes, you can also see my bedroom is painted dark – three dark brown walls, and one avocado green wall — I LOVE them.  I’ve lost track of how many years ago I painted them, it’s been at least three-possibly as many as five} So, we went to work with fixing it to be age appropriate.  She wanted the bottom to have pick ups – this was a perfect way to easily shorten the dress the foot+ that needed to come off.  😀  I just shorten the most interior liner layer to the correct length then I used big multi-colored button to pick up the other layers.  I sewed through all the layers to the lining.  I started at the bottom and work my way up not putting any on the bum so it didn’t look like there was a bustle.  Because the top is just spaghetti straps, mom took her on a different day and got a women’s 2x Nordstrom, dark brown, t-shirt and I made a bolo jacket she could wear over it.  She wouldn’t let me take pictures of her with it on, so you’ll have to trust me that it looked better on her than it does hanging on this hanger.

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