Jun 27, 2010

Vintage Finds and Results of my Attempts

Thank you all for the encouraging comments!!! It really boosted my spirit to making the envelope purses. I made two all ready and am quite excited, but know that there are many spots that could be polished if I ever try to make another one*wink.*

Here is a picture of the results of my envelope purses:

Not quite perfect (very rough in spots), but still pleased with it:).

Purple one.... (Which I finished last night)
Blue one.... (That I made to-day:)
Also, yesterday, my mom and I went to a flee market which was held in the middle of town. I purchased this lovely fine bone china tea cup which was only $2 bucks!!! (What a deal, right??!!!) There were many other tea cups at another table that I was looking at, but they were $12; so I did not purchase them:(Tear):

I know it says "25th Anniversary," but it is pretty nonetheless, and a perfect price! I also found this vintage, dainty half-apron for only $4, and I had to buy it!!! I LOVE half-aprons, so old-fashion (And this one has pockets:)! (Sorry the picture is blurry) When Mother and I arrived home, we were greeted by an unexpected, spectacular surprise! My aunt, who had stayed with us at the beginning of June, sent us this gorgeous-looking bouquet!!! Thank you so much, Aunt Sue!!! We LOVE it!!!
Quite Victorian looking, no? 'Tis quite pretty to look at!!!

Hope all are having a lovely evening!

~Blessings From Your Sister in Christ~






Jun 25, 2010

Today in My Garden...A Hermit Crab? And more craft projects!

Good evening, Fair Readers!!! Hope all of you have had some wonderful past few days!

Well, to-day was a rather enjoyable day while my parents took some very good friends and me to the tidepools. We had a very nice time investigating the tidepools, and all the the intriguing little creatures that the Lord made! (Pictures are posted later in the post:)

I am going to attempt (I might not quite succeed, but you never know unless you try*wink*:) to make this cute envelope purse for a gift using the instructions in the book which I taught myself how to crochet out of:

Klutz kits are AWESOME, but I do not recommend that you purchase this book for you do have to improv. on some of the "patterns." Remember the soap bag that I wrote about in a few posts ago? It took me about a year to figure it out from the instructions in this book; and in fact, I had to set my crocheting (and all the dreams of crocheting wonderful things:) aside for about a year and finally took it up again until not that long ago. Well, as I was saying before, I am going to attempt to make that cute envelope purse, and hope, just hope, that I will be able to make it!!!:) I am planning on making it with the darker purple yarn above with the light lavender yarn for the trim. (Dark purple yarn recently purchased from Michael's and lavender yarn left-over from other project:)

I am also planning on replenishing my stock on cards (I keep cards in a box, so I have hand-made birthday, thank-you, or just greeting cards at my easy disposal for those emergency times*wink*). My aunt gave me a gift-card (Thank you, Aunt Cindy and Family:) for Michael's for my graduation out of 8th grade and into high school, and I have been enjoying buying different yarns and scrapbook paper. I thought you might enjoy some pictures of this Indian inspired paper:

I absolutely L.O.V.E. K&Company!!! They manufacture a great line of different scrapbooking paper and stickers!!! Here are a few of my favourite double-sided paper:Blue back-ground and writing with flowers and butterfly!!! (See in the background the scissors? Those are my trusty all-purpose sewing, craft, titanium scissors that I received as a Christmas present from my dad in my stocking. At first, I was quite perplexed at the present {I mean come on, scissors in my stocking?}, but they have proved to be quite practical in my sewing basket and card-making bag! And every time I use them they remind me of what wonderful dad God has blessed me with! Just a little side-story there:) A gold fish...

Oooo, I really like that one with the sand bird!
Okay, now onto the part about the tidepools. Look what beautiful treasures I unearthed!!!

Shells!!! (Not that I have enough:)And this is a sort of tank I made out of an abalone filled with smooth sea glass, rocks, and many shells I have collected over the years:

While I was sorting out all of my shells, I peeked into a spiral shell and...surprise, surprise!!! The shell was occupied with an unexpected guest....Mr. Hermit Crab!!! Here are a few videos I made of hime that I though you might enjoy (You will need to pause the music player at the bottom of the page:):

Sorry that they are a little bit blurry. My camera does not take the best, up-close videos!
*Yawn* I have to go to bed now, but I hope you enjoyed the post!!!
Hope you are having a lovely evening, dearest readers!
Love always,

Jun 24, 2010

Simplicity of June

Hello, dear readers!!! I just thought I should update my real blog posts!!! I have been really occupied the last few days, (mostly working on my Nancy Drew Series Book Review I have read books 4 through 8 within the past few days!!!) and will post about that on my other blog soon, I hope. And working on my letters to my faithful penpals!:)

Today, I went to Michael's (one of my fav. craft stores:) and purchased these lovely recipe cards which I had been looking everywhere for the longest time!

Cherries!!!Cherry pie...Yummy!!!

Lemonade....*Sigh*, refreshing
And for a graduation present*wink* my parents purchased a yard of some lovely (and soft:) fabric for a little surprise project I am working on for a friend:)

My lavender bush is finally blooming!!!
First, harvest of my bush....

My parents took my for a day at the beach! We had a lovely afternoon relaxing in the sun...

.....enjoying the blue, blue sky, the soft waves lapping against the shore, the warm breeze, and a distant seagulls' call....*sigh* So soothing!
I also enjoyed catching a few good waves on my board, and I found two huge hermit crabs!!! Too bad that I did not take any pictures:(
Also, Johanna and I are working on a "pretend" newspaper called The Candleford Chronicle,
and we would really appreciate if any of you could recommend some history inspired sites that have Victorian era graphics, recipes, pictures, magazine articles; anything would be much help! Thank you so much!!! You can find some more info. about what we are working on at Johanna's Blog
Oh, and I also switched over to another music player, that is connected with YouTube so it has such a wonderful variety of videos and songs. It is called Mixpod, and if you do not have a music player on your blog but are looking for one, I highly recommend Mixpod. Tell me what your thoughts are on my new music player and what music you would like to see on there! I especially like Christian, hymns, classical piano or violin or harp etc., and Disney songs like the one from Bolt and Enchanted that are playing below!
Hope all of you enjoy and are having a lovely evening!
With lots of love to you all,



Jun 22, 2010

And the Winner of my Second Giveaway Is....


Hello again, readers!!! Okay, I was so excited about the giveaway that I cannot help but reveal to you the winner to-night, yes, you heard me TONIGHT!!!! First of all I want to thank all of you who entered!!! And secondly, I will host another giveaway quite soon I hope:) (Any suggestions on what I should make?) And thirdly:
CONGRATULATIONS to the winners!!!!
Okay, enough of the rambling and just get onto who the winner are, Grace!!!!
Well, we have tonight two lovely winners:
Our first winner of the lovely pink, hand-crocheted soap bag, blue crocheted flower, and lavender soap is.....
*drum roll please*
Johanna from An Old-Fashion Girl!!!!!! Congratulations, dear friend!!! I have your address, so I will mail it to you in my next letter! I am so happy for you!!!! (At one time you said you never won any giveaways, well, you have won one of mine:)
The next winner for the three lovely hand-crocheted flowers is....
Shana from Heirs of Grace!!!! Congratulations, Shana!!!! Just leave your email address for me on this post please (I will not publish it). I am so excited for you!!!!Well, as I said before, I hope to host another giveaway very soon! I would love to give everyone a prize, but alas, there were only two!!!!
Hope everyone is having a peaceful and lovely evening!

Love from your sister in Christ,


Jun 21, 2010

Go Vote For Me!!!!

Dear Readers,
As you know, Samantha over at Simple Delights hosted the Modest Fashion Week, and now it is up to you to vote for who you think had the best outfits throughout the week, and so I want to say:
PLEASE VOTE FOR ME!!!!!
(that is if you think my outfit is the best:), but anyway, PLEASE VOTE FOR ME :). So head over to Simple Delights and vote on the poll. You can only vote for two girls, and the person who has 50 votes first, is the winner!!! (I have three right now:).
Oh, and my giveaway ends to-morrow evening so if you have not entered, I encourage you to do so!!!
Hope everyone is having a lovely afternoon filled with summer blessings!
Best Reagards to all of my faithful followers and readers,

Jun 20, 2010

Happy Father's Day!!!!!!

Dear Readers,
Happy Father's Day!!!!!! Father's are such a blessing!
Here's an Acrostic I wrote:
Fearless
Always there for you
The Hard Worker
Hero
Encouraging
Reliable
On Father's Day,
I want to say,
What a special dad you mean to me,
And I cannot wait to see
What the Lord has in store,
So let's walk through the open door,
Hand in hand.
I love this song by Steven Curtis Chapman; it made me cry the first time I saw it!
Cinderella


Last night, around 11:00 I was watching the Christian channel and I saw this, and it made me cry too:
Butterfly Kisses
(Please watch all of it)
This is one of my favourite quotes from So Much More by the Botkin Sisters:
To our heavenly Father
who chose to make us the daughters of our earthly father,
And to our earthly father
who taught us about our heavenly Father.
This post is dedicated to my Daddy, who shall forever be cherished by his "little girl" :).
Happy Father's Day!!!!
Love to you all,
Grace

Jun 19, 2010

Modest Fashion Week Day 6 (Boohoo, Last Day!!!!)

Dearest Readers,
Well, to-day is the very last day of Modest Fashion Week. :(Tear): It was so fun to see all the outfits and it was very encouraging to see so many young ladies wanting to dress modestly! Thank you so much Samantha for hosting this!!!! Please do it again very soon!
To-day I wore:
Denim dress that I purchased from Target a long time ago,
Shawl/scarf purchased from Mervynes which is no longer a store,
Regency era inspired hat purchased in a small shop called Reborn and I spent a pretty penny (more like $42.00) on the hat (I tried it on and I fell in love with it immediately:),
And sandals that I have worn throughout the week are from Payless.
Hope everyone is enjoying the wonderful summer weather!
Lots of Love from Your Sister in Christ,
Grace

Jun 18, 2010

Modest Fashion Week Day 5

It's the SECOND to last day of Modest Fashion Week!!!! Today I was just around-the-house type of day and I wore this:

Brown dress: Ross for about $.78!!!! I just had to give the cashier a dollar for the dress!
It was such a good deal and a perfect dress for wearing around the house.
Love always,
Grace

Jun 17, 2010

Purity Buttons

Good evening, fair readers! In honor of Bess's Romance and Purity Month, I created some pretty buttons for your sidebar announcing that you will stay pure for your future husband!

" I am a daughter under my father's protection and guidance""I am staying in the tower until my Prince Charming comes" "I will stay pure..."
"I am waiting for my prince..."
"One day, I shall meet my prince....""I will patiently await for the day..."
" I am awaiting for the wedding bells to ring!"

So just copy any of these pictures (or as many as you like) to your computer and paste to your sidebar.

Hope you all enjoy! Oh, and be sure to check out Modest Fashion Week and Bess's Romance and Purity Month.

Love always,