My diaper Bag

Here are some pictures of the diaper bag that I made for myself! I like it! I would have liked it to be a little bigger, but since I made it from jeans, it had to be a certain size.

Let it be none that I do not like this picture of me! But it shows my bag pretty good.

This is the inside view!

Here is a close up of the front.

We have 2 sisters here who are expecting babies, and I plan to make them each a bag. I thought I would make one and see how good it does on ebay. Also, my sister sells her Avon stuff at a flea market & said that if I ever wanted to try to sell my bags there I could, or she could try to sell them for me. If I can get some made up I might try that. Miminko Apparel where I have my blankets for sell said they might check out about selling these bags next month. I really enjoy making these bags, it would be nice if I could make a little bit of money from them! With the small jean scraps that I have from making the bags I'm making a crazy quilt bag. I will have to post pictures when I get it done. It will be awhile though because I'm doing fancy embroidery on it. I'm thinking when I get it done I will keep it for myself! I think it will look really neat!

Late Night Smoothie

The other night I was looking at the strawberries I had picked from my strawberry patch; trying to decide what to do with them. Then I noticed the one lonely banana sitting on my counter that needed to be used. I thought maybe I could make a smoothie, but the fruit wasn't frozen. I de-stemmed the berries, peeled the banana & put them in the freezer for a little while. This is the recipe we came up with: It was REALLY good!

1-2 cups strawberries
1 banana
1 small tub of Tillamook orange cream yogurt (not frozen
2 dreamscicles (for those of you who don't know, this is vanilla ice-cream covered with orange sherbet type stuff) We, of course, pulled the sticks out first!

We blended everything together, along with a small amount of milk to help it blend better. It was yummy!

Weights

I've recently blogged about my struggle with prophesy. Last night I was laying in bed thinking about how it really shouldn't be as hard as it is for me. I was thinking about some things that I've allowed in my life that may be making serving the Lord harder. They aren't really bad things, but I was thinking about how they may be keeping me from being as close to the Lord as I should be.

Again, I was laying in bed thinking about things and I wasn't able to go to sleep. I decided to get up and read the Bible again. Here is the very first verse that I read:

Hebrews 12:1

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

So...., I guess the Lord agrees with me that these things are weights that I need to set aside if I want to serve the Lord to the fullest. Please pray for me.

Did You Know...

I was racking my brain for some blog worthy material when I thought of this...

Many people who know me do not realize that my left hand looks like this:

When I was 2 (so I don't remember, but people have told me) we were visiting my Uncle Gene & Aunt Nadine. At that time they lived out in the country, and they had a bonfire. I guess the fire wasn't going, but there were hot coals. I was walking on the rocks around the fire and slipped. My cousin Brenda had some fast reflexes and grabbed me by the shirt before I could fall all the way in. These pictures show the scars from that fall. I'm sure the burns were bad, but I'm very thankful that the Lord watched out for me as a little child. If I had fallen all the way in it would have been so much worse.

Even people who know about the scars forget that I have them because they are not that noticeable. The scars have given my fingers a web look. They really don't affect me very much, except that I can't grasp things that are very big around, like large cups.

Anyway, so there's a little bit of information about me. If any of you are running out of blog worthy stuff, maybe you could post about some little known fact about yourself!

Reading the Bible

More than once, but once just recently, Bro. Rusty got up and talked about how the Lord would wake him up in the night, or early in the morning to read the Bible. Sometimes he does it and sometimes he doesn't.

Well, last night, I went to bed late, but I could NOT go to sleep. I laid there and had different things running through my mind. Eventually I remembered what Bro. Rusty had said, and I thought "maybe I need to go read my Bible," but then I would try to tell myself that what I really needed to do was go to sleep. I eventually did decide to get up and read my Bible. It seems like I always tell myself I should read a chapter or 2 in my Bible every day, but I never do. Here was a perfect opportunity for some uninterrupted Bible reading.

I have slowly been trying to read the New Testament, and last time I left off in Hebrews, so that's what I read. A lot of it didn't really seem to apply to me because it had a lot to do with the changing from the Jewish law to the Christian law, but I decided to read until something caught my attention. It is very interesting how it seems like the times that I take the time to read I find something that really boosts me up, and is just what I need. Here is what I read:

Hebrews 10:22-25:

"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful who promised;)

And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works:

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching."

As I was reading this I had to ask myself if I could honesty say that I had a true heart in full assurance of faith; also is my faith unwavering? I really am not sure if my faith was truly tested how I would deal with it. The big thing that caught my attention about this scripture is how we hear the scripture about "forsake not the assembling of ourselves together" a lot. Most of the time I don't think of this scripture as applying to me because I always go to church! But as I read this I thought how I could be (and often am) forsaking assembling myself even when I'm going to church! When I read the scripture around that quote, I could see how most of the time I go to church I'm not fulfilling that scripture because I don't really do anything to help my brethren. I really need to stop just going through the motions and really try to do the works God wants me to do.

Here is some more scripture a little farther down:

Hebrews 10:35-39:

"Cast now away therefore your confidence; which hath great recompense of reward.

For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

For yet a little while, and he that shall come shall come, and will not tarry.

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

But we are not of them who draw back into perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul."

This scripture brought to mind the scripture: "grow not weary in well doing" I think there is a lot of times that I do grow weary in well doing, so I slack off. Too many time I get caught up in the things of this life and I forget what the true goal is, and how great a thing I would be missing out on if I don't press in. Like this scripture says, God will not tarry. I surely do not want to miss out.

The last part of this scripture brought to mind something that I've been thinking a lot about lately. I think it really hit me after the Brewster camp out. My mom told me that my sister had spoken her first prophesy. I was really pleased for her, but I have to admit I was a little saddened by it too. As I think I've blogged about before, I really struggle with this gift. When I heard my sister had spoken a prophesy I was reminded about the parable of the talents. We've heard it a lot, but I thought about the part where the one talent that was buried was given to the man who had used his talents wisely. Even though I draw back from using my gift, I'm horrified by the thought of the Lord taking it away and giving it to someone else! Because if the Lord can't trust me with this one gift, how will he entrust me with any others? Now when my sister reads this I don't want her to be saddened too, because I believe that the Lord has used her use of this gift to open up my eyes to the ramifications of drawing back from using my gifts. I want the Lord to have pleasure in me, I want to be like the man in the parable who received more gifts after using his original ones wisely.

Anyway, I thought I would share my little time of meditation with all of you. Please pray for me, that I can embrace it all and apply it to my life, and I want to READ MY BIBLE MORE OFTEN!

"No More Baskets!"

"MOM!", he said frantically!

His mom whipped her head around to see what was wrong.

This is what she saw (minus the smile):

"I don't have any more baskets", he said!

She laughed at him hysterically as she fixed his hat for him!

Craft Project pictures

Well, I finally got done with the camp out quilt, and sent it on it's way back home. I think it looks great! I plan to buy some tickets at the camp out in hopes of winning it! Here is a picture of the whole quilt...

Here's a close up of the center.

The quilt was sent to a few different assemblies to make a border. Each assembly put somewhere on their border, their assembly name. Ours didn't show up real well on the big picture so here is ours:

For our border we decided on the dark brown, and since there are so many children in our assembly we decided to outline our children's hands in different fabrics and sew them onto our border. I think it turned out really cute; so here are some close ups of the corners where we put our hands...

Here is the other project I made. I made this diaper bag for Sis. Cherrie as sort of a going away gift, but I remembered to take some pictures of it before I gave it to her. I was very happy with how it looked. I think it turned out to be a good size. There are lots of pockets for all the little do-dads that mothers need to haul along with them everywhere! I have plans to make one for myself. I thought about waiting to post until I got that one done too, but I wasn't sure when I would get around to it; so here are these pictures. The first one is a view of the inside. I have some ideas of some different embellishments for mine rather than the bow. We will see if they work out. When I get it done I will try to make another post.

An a slightly different note, I sold 2 of my blankets through Maminko, and got my check! The woman in charge is away on her honeymoon, when she gets back I will find out if she wants me to make more to replace them!

I have other pictures to make some more posts. Hopefully you all will be seeing them soon...