vintage cross stitch patterns

Love to cross stitch?  I do too BUT had way too many patterns I knew I'd never do up... especially now that my eyes are getting older!  So I put lots of the better conditioned vintage ones in my shop... HERE...

  

 Ecclesiastes 3:7 A time to tear, And a time to sew;

some "where've you been?" bullet points and BGB music video

Not crafting right now because of so many other things needing attention ... but soon, hopefully very soon... I'm missing it terribly.

We're coming to the end of 2 of our 3 high school years.  Not sure how we're going to celebrate it yet and not sure if they'll be exactly "on time" with their public school peers, they may be a few weeks off.  Both are planning to continue at the local state college.

The garden is growing well and we've had some radishes already.  Lucy (our mini-daschund) watched Rod pull some up one evening and she's been a little radish stealer since... you'd think she was a rabbit, except she doesn't eat them.  Just loves to pull one up and run around with it, especially if you're inclined to chase her.

I was diagnosed pre-diabetic which means things have to change.  I've started a walking routine (Ann comes with me and it's been great walking with her), changing my eating habits, testing my blood sugar (not sure how long I have to keep that up but hopefully not forever... ouch!), and trying to learn/study more about healthy food and what's good for what. 


I've mentioned my son's band before, BGB, they're still going to it.  There's Sam and Jake (guitar and bass guitar), their friends Nate (singer) and Zach (drummer).  An upcoming highlight for them is playing at Wet and Wild Waves of Glory.  One evening after a gig, Jake talked the guys into finally letting him get some video ... they finally cooperated. 



2 Corinthians 2:14  Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.

how does our garden grow?

Last year we did some talking about it... this year Rod got busy, even while I was sickly, and built the beds...

dug them in...

filled them up and planted (with supervision of course).

He also did the cutting back that was so needed on our cold hit Florida plants and transplanted others to better flower bed spots (he was really feeling his inner gardener... I'd never seen him like this!)

The radishes popped up right away with the green beans following quickly...

and almost seemed to grow and stretch as we were watching.

Today all the plants are up and growing... the radishes, marigolds, green beans, onions, jalapeno peppers, corn, and okra.  The tomatoes are slow so far but we haven't had a lot of heat at this point.  We plan on adding a few more plants to these two beds and are already talking one more raised bed, possibly two.

Rod planted a couple watermelon hills in the flower bed and they're coming up too.  I'm not quite sure what Lucy's expression is about.

Ever notice how even weeds are pretty in spring?

No sign of life up in what's left of the pink/peach bougainvilla branches yet BUT there's life coming up from the roots! 

John 19:41 Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

recent front page action

Fellow SHEteam member, Elegant Rose Boutique, had a treasury featured on Etys's front page recently and one of my coaster sets was a part of it..... always a fun thing! 

Elegant Rose Boutique has a shop full of wonderful pampering and natural products.  She also has a facebook Fanpage to keep her customers updated on any sales and such.

Here's another recent front page treasury in which one of my brooches had the pleasure of being part.  This gal's treasuries are always fun and beautiful... thanks, Rebecca!


Rebecca has a very cool vintage shop called LOOKs and an adorable vintage shop for children called dearFreckle.  She is quite the thrifter and shares her expertise on her vintage blog ... one of these days I want to tag along with her since we live in the same town!  Vintage style is dear to her but her heart is her wonderfully busy family life.










To browse items in Etsy's treasury lists or search to see if one of your shop items have been on the front page, check out CraftCult's "the vault" page. 

Matthew 27:6 But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.”

new camera fun

Jake recently bought himself a really fancy new camera, a Canon 7d with video capability.  Nice camera... I've played with it only a couple of times so far.  Jake is a senior and finishing up his school this year.  It's hard for him to focus on actual schoolwork because he is very distracted with this "hobby" of his... we've somewhat allowed him his freedom within reason and it has been something to see his progress over the past couple of years with his videography, editing, graphics, and such... he's self-taught and loves all aspects.  The local state college has a video program he plans on signing on with so he'll be staying local for school at this point.  We aren't sure which direction he's going but he's already working on his own ideas, working on video projects with others, and working with various local commercial studio groups when he can.  As long as he's keeping it clean, we're behind him and so far he seems to keep a good head on his shoulders, which is good... because he's meeting and working with people we don't have a clue about.  Oh, he tells us who, where, and what the projects are (there are a lot of music video shoots and such that people are putting together)... but this is the tough part of "letting go" that comes with parenting this age.


One of his recent projects is working with a young man at church who wrote a book about a young man who is fighting hard with his family history of alcohol and abuse.  I read the book and it's very good.  Joe, the author, wanted to do a book trailer (seems to be the new thing) and asked Jake to help him out.  It turned out they pretty much shot the whole book, enlisting the aid of friends as actors, (Joe is playing his main character)  etc... not sure where they are going from here with all that footage but I thought the trailer turned out pretty good.  What do you think... does it increase your interest in reading the book?  (It's only about a minute and 1/2.)  I think this whole book trailer thing is pretty interesting.


Contemplation Trailer from Jake Whitney on Vimeo.


Here's another recent video Jake shot off the cuff...
Their band (BGB) was in Melbourne for a show when he saw this building and had a few moments to get some video shots and came up with an idea to make an anology of getting caught up in sin...

it's called The Captive. (about 2 minutes)

Matthew 16:26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

needing some work

So I had this whole kidney/uti infection going on when I thought it was my back that was giving me grief... it was my back but I thought it was still my back when it wasn't... it was more and it finally made itself obvious.  So I go to the doc's, get meds, and then get allergic to the meds.  Not. Pretty.  Was miserably (as in, can't-do-anything-for-myself) sick all last week and I'm so glad that is over and things are on the mend.

We still haven't done any serious cutting back in the yard since the cold snap so I don't have a clue what plants I still have left... have to get busy with it though.  Hopefully there's still life in that bougainvillea but I may have to cut it back rather drastically.

Matthew 14:35 And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent out into all that surrounding region, brought to Him all who were sick,

an easy light box

I needed a light box and found nice directions on-line but they were too much for my simple needs.  Jake helped me come up with this set-up... it's easy to put up and take down, easily stored, simple, and inexpensive!  This is just basic instructions...

Needed:

roll of white butcher paper

display board - size depends on what you're usually photographing

a true or day type light/lamp fixture  (I'm using one I had already and talk about here.  Try different lamps you have on hand before going to any major expense but do go to the expense of a good daylight bulb.)

scissors; box cutter or other cutting blade; clear packing tape

I used a tri-fold display board, slicing it in half in height and then slicing the right and left sides from the middle of one of the halves.  Then tape those side pieces onto the remaining half at the sides.  Tape them on the back side, leaving ease enough to be able to fold it into itself.  You'll have a middle piece remaining unattached.  (So easy to store when it's folded up!)

Okay... next comes the butcher paper.  You'll want 3 pieces cut from the roll... one for each side and one to drape in the middle.  Lay the remaining cardboard piece from the display board down, white side up, in the middle area.  Do the sides first... cut two pieces of a length that will give you a hanger to fold over the upper edge and a drape at the bottom but they don't have to meet in the middle in any particular way or match perfectly, and an overlap past the end of the board is fine.  (I hope that isn't too confusing for perfectionists!)

The 3rd piece from the butcher paper will be for the back... cut a piece to include enough to fold over the back edge, like the sides, then hang down in a creaseless drape, long enough to reach to the ends of the side pieces.  (Use either an empty paper roll or the same butcher paper roll to roll the paper back up on when finished.)

Jake tells me the important thing is to keep that back curve smooth.  When you photograph your items, watch camera placement to keep the rough edges out of the view unless you plan to photoshop them out later.  Place light where as much brightness as possible falls into the boxed area.  More extensive boxes include an enclosed box with one missing side for the camera and holes cut out on the top and sides for day light lamps.  The idea is lots of light with lots of reflecting light bouncing off the white ... this is a very simplified version and could definitely be improved upon.  I may eventually try some silky or satin-y fabric but paper is fine in the meantime.  The best thing about this set up is I can photograph the items I make for my etsy shop anytime... I like using natural sunlight best but sometimes I just can't get it done during those times.

The head? ... it was actually from a fun Christmas party white elephant gift exchange at a friend's house!  We came home with such funny but useful gifts.  The glass head and a small dog life jacket... yep, a young lady no longer needed it and thought it would be funny to bring.  It was one of the last packages under the tree and I had one of the last numbers.  Everyone laughed when I unwrapped it but I couldn't help but think it was meant to be... Lucy has been going kayaking with Rod and the boys and jumping off the kayak.  We were thinking about getting her one anyway!

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

x3 chicken

This could be considered killing 3 birds with one stone... (and that could be considered tasteless I guess)... but considering all the talk about meat these days, this could be considered moot!  But I'll go ahead and share anyway...

With our family here and there at different times and trying to save time and money, cooking is a challenge these days!  Well... it kinda always has been, I'm not a natural in the kitchen even if I do favor the Barefoot Contessa.  Mom and I remember things differently... I remember her not being patient with me in the kitchen and she remembers me running from the kitchen at the first sign of trouble.  I think she's probably right because I still do that.  This doesn't mean I don't like to cook... it just means I'd rather go out!

But since this was something I could tackle in the now and it also helped in the later on (which means less thinking for me to do then)... even I couldn't go wrong!

From now on, when I buy chicken in quantity and need to separate it (ugh!), I'll go ahead and fix it for following meals.  I had a big family size package of boneless skinless breasts and was just wanting to make some quick wraps and dreaded packing away the rest of the chicken just to have to redo the whole process later.  So I went ahead and prepared the rest of the chicken for what I had it in mind for... the less tastier bits are now ready for soup and the larger pieces for chicken/rice casserole or just baked chicken and salad.  It only took part of the present cooking time to do, leaving plenty of time to prepare the rest of the present meal and having the worse of those 2 meals already done... ahhh.  I'm sure this is not an original idea but it came to mind, is easy enough and, even better, less to deal with later!

1 Kings 18:34 Then he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time; and he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time.

Feeling BLUE?

I always wondered why blue was the color used to describe feelings of being down or depressed.... and especially after seeing the blog Ode to Blue!  My funky blue coasters were put into one of her archive posts along with other blue circle-y items from etsy sellers.  Fun!  as is the whole blog... dedicated to blue!  Check it out (especially if you love blue!)

Exodus 26:4 And you shall make loops of blue yarn on the edge of the curtain on the selvedge of one set, and likewise you shall do on the outer edge of the other curtain of the second set.

fanpages

Facebook seriously doesn't need my endorsement or censure but that's not what this is about... you either facebook or you don't.  BUT there are some really neat fanpages on facebook.  We have one for TLC Newborn so I'm trying to learn more about actually utilizing their potential.  (Any suggestions welcome.)


Here's a few I personally find very helpful/useful/fun.  I'll try to post more once in awhile as I find them... leave me your finds and favs too!  I really do like getting the fanpage updates after the friends updates... but not the games, so don't bother with those.  If they're your thing, go for it, but you can't guilt me into playing... sorry!  Ask my sister ;-)   Some I share may be a local thing but there's still good info on them! 

Calvary Chapel Vero Beach  - not a fanpage but friend request them to get Sunday morn and Thur night (sometimes) real time and archived Bibles studies.


fanpage for Dollar Store crafts - fun crafty links!


fanpage for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine - yes... I still check things out even though we're in our final years... I'm still a homeschool Mom at heart!!


fanpage for Lake Family Magazine - wonderful area family magazine run by a good friend... she always has interesting discussions going on!

Proverbs 17:9 He who covers a transgression seeks love, But he who repeats a matter separates friends.