Sleep, Anxiety, and the Promises of God

We've been reading through this book at Bible Study, and this week's chapter was very encouraging (and convicting!). I've had so much baby stuff (only six more weeks before we meet our baby girl!) on my mind that sometimes I have trouble going to sleep, even when I'm super tired.

Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:6-7)

"Too many Christians try to deal with their anxieties by worrying on their knees. They worry, conclude it with "in Jesus' name, amen," and then, not surprisingly, have trouble sleeping. They have reversed the promise of this passage and tried to orient their hearts and minds in such a way as to 'keep' or protect the peace of God. ... But the promise is the other way around. The peace of God which makes no sense will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

- Douglas Wilson My Life For Yours: A Walk Through the Christian Home
(on sleep in the bedroom)

~Noble
(Next week it's Courtney's turn to post a quote on Friday, so make sure to come back and see what she's been thinking about!)
(Also, I apologize for my overabundance of parentheses... I'm an addict. :-P )

Back with a plan

Dare I say it...we might be back for real now. I had this baby, Blaze, and he has gone from a little smidge to a big opinionated chunk of 5 months. Now I feel ready to do things (and make other people do them, too!). So we are back, and we have a plan. We're hoping the plan will help us stay back with some consistency.

Part of the plan is having certain regular "features" (i.e. certain types of things to share on certain days).

Today is Wednesday, the middle of the week, when I start to feel like I swam waaay too far out from the shore (which is the weekend, in my analogy ;)) and might never make it back. I tend to listen to lots of fun music on Wednesdays to perk things up.

So here is our first weekly feature (eek, I said weekly! That implies commitment!): The Wednesday Pick-Me-Up Song.

The Wednesday Pick-Me-Up
It's celtic. Sorry if you hate celtic. I like it, depending. And this lovely song is by one of my favorite duos, Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas.

Jig Runrig/The Ramnee Ceilidh by Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas

It's from their album, The Highlander's Farewell. My link is a Spotify link, but if you don't like Spotify, I'm sure you can find it on iTunes or your music provider of choice.

Be sure to check back on Friday for our next update!

Do you need a pick-me-up on Wednesdays, too? Or are they your favorite day of the week? And do you have a favorite pick-me-up song this week? Let us know in the comments!

Happy Wednesday!
Courtney

Baby Things!

These are for me, but I need them because this baby is growing (23 1/2 weeks now!):


They're not maternity -- just normal, but the skirts are two sizes up from what I'd normally wear! I'll wear them low-rise, under the bump. :) For $12 at Goodwill, definitely worth it! And I love the springy Easter egg colors. My philosophy is, since it's January, spring is on its way!

Here are the two sweaters I've made for the smidge. The blue one, of course, in case it's a boy, and the pink one if it's not! They're actually from the same pattern, which is free on Ravelry. The blue one looks more like the original pattern. :)

Mushrooms!

Noble sent me a picture of these adorable felted mushrooms a few months ago; I think they were needle-felted, which I have no idea how to do! But I found this adorable pattern and made her a pair! Then I made a pair for another friend of mine who things that little nature decorations are cute. :) These red ones are Noble's. I made the small rounded cap and the small bell-shaped cap, and two medium stems.



This was my first ever hand-felted project, and it was so much fun! I just felted them in a mixing bowl full of water with a teensy dash of soap.

In the mood for Christmas!

Yeah, I'm one of *those* people. The ones who like to break out the Christmas stuff at the first sign of cold (or the first week of November). But I have an excuse this year! I've been working with Christmas decorations since *JULY*, so holding off till November is a good thing. :-P Anyways. I made something that I kind of adore.

It's a snowflake mobile! I used the extra snowflakes from my wedding, some silver ribbon, grey thread, and tape. Very easy, and very sparkly. :-)

More Flowers!

The ladies from my church held a craft sale this Saturday, so I made a few flower hair clips and went along. The sale went off really well, I think! Of the 27 flowers I took, I sold 18 and gave away 3. I wasn't expecting it to go that well! And besides selling the clips, I got to sit and chat with some of the ladies from church and get to know them much better. Amazing what you learn about people, given seven hours of conversation!

I didn't get pictures of the sale, but here are the flowers I had left over.

It's been a while

Again! I'm not very good at regular posting. But I might be better now...

Anyway here is something I've been up to:


I hemmed a friend's bridesmaid dress and wanted to do something with the pretty pink scraps I cut off, so I made flowers! Once I made them, I glued/sewed them onto barrettes & clippies so they can be clipped onto hairstyles/button holes/purse loopies. I think making these is pretty much the funnest craft because first you get to sit around and melt little fabric circles and then you get to sew them into flowers!

I used several different online tutorials for inspiration...
Here's one I found after I started making them. I think this girl's are pretty! Her idea of clipping the edges was clever...I'll try that next time.

I saw this one floating around at some point, but of course couldn't find it while I was actually making mine so I didn't use it...but they're pretty, too!

And I saw this one, but was too lazy to cut all the different shapes, so I just used a variety of circle sizes instead.

The basic principle behind all of the tutorials is the same...you cut out some flowery shapes. Then you melt the edges of your fabric so that a) it won't fray and b) it crinkles up in a flower-like way. Sew all your flowery shapes together into one flower (I used a little scrap of fabric to back mine, and sewed all the petals to that). Finally, stick (i.e. glue or sew) a barrette/clippy to the back of your flower. Tada! Yep, it's fun.