WIP Wednesday

So I was feeling mostly out of steam for the craft fair, but I decided that I needed to have money in something.  A box didn't seem pretty or all that practical because there's not much room in an 8'x8' booth.  We're using up most of our room to display our stuff.  So I followed this tutorial and made an apron. 

I like it.  There are four pockets so I think I'll keep money in them like this: ones & pennies, fives & nickels, tens & dimes, and twenties & quarters. 

The other thing I think will be really useful at the craft fair is the Square Register and iPad app.  I can take credit card payments with the little square thing I plug into the iPad and the app looks really good.  I have set it to automatically calculate state sales tax for each item and I can have pictures and prices of my inventory.  I just tap on the picture and it goes to the register.  And if people pay with cash and want a receipt, I can enter their email and the app sends a receipt.  Pretty cool.

So, actual works in progress other than the ridiculously long list are making signs that show prices for our items, getting the Square App all full of our products, and maybe I'll do a little last minute sewing.  I made this Union Jack pillow and it was my first sale, so I think I'll make some more. 

After the craft fair, I hope my WIP Wednesdays will be more interesting and I can show progress on those things that are sitting there calling to me.

Oh, and Linda informed me that Tom Selleck's mustache doesn't work!  Shoot.  I'll try to get that fixed.

Catching up

Since I was busy enjoying time with family on Saturday, I forgot to post something funny so I'm catching up and doing that today.  Otherwise, I'm mostly working to get ready for the craft fair this Saturday.  If you are local, please come!


My apologies to Paige if I stole this from her blog.  I don't remember where I first saw it.

Just in case you needed the info again. :)

Hungry for bread

We have been reading from the book of John with Tomás at bedtime recently and the section we've been in for a while is chapter 6.  It's a long section, so I'm not going to type it all out, but you can read it here.  So it starts out that Jesus feeds more than five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish.  The people like a free meal and full bellies so the next day they go looking for Jesus hoping for more.  He's on the other side of the lake because He walked on the water in the middle of the night and then hopped in the boat with His disciples.  Anyway, the people hop in their boats, find Jesus and He tells them that they are just looking for another free meal and that they should be working for food that leads to eternal life.  They want to know what work that is and he tells them that they need to believe in Him.  They, still wanting to get a free meal out of Jesus, basically tell him "We'll believe you if you give us some more food.  Moses gave our fathers food every day!"  So Jesus tells them that God gives the true bread from heaven for life and they are like "Yeah, give us some of that always!"  Jesus makes it even clearer for them.  He's the bread.  Feeding your soul is more important than feeding your belly.

Reading this has challenged me.  I like to feed my belly and have material stuff and enjoy things around me.  None of that is necessarily bad, but Jesus wants me to love Him more.  I need to be hungry for the true bread.  I need to put time with Him and time in His Word as priority above physical needs.  This is an especially appropriate time to be reminded of this.  We get busy enjoying the holidays and can forget to enjoy Him.  So before we stuff another tasty butter slathered roll in our mouths, let's remember to feed our souls with the true bread and spend time in the Word and in prayer. 

Oh, I almost forgot!

For the first time ever, I won a giveaway on a blog!!!  And I got some cool stuff!

Becca at Bryan House Quilts has made some really great quilts and has a few good tutorials, so check her blog out.

Festivities, Family, Food, Failure

Well, it's been a couple of packed days around here, but good days.  On Wednesday we met up with my husband's family at Wasserbahn water park/hotel.  My son had a great time with his cousins and it was a pretty good deal. 

These are random strangers, but you get the idea.

play area

 We then headed to Cedar Rapids for Thanksgiving dinner with more of Andrew's family.  As usual, all the food was delicious and it's always good to see family.  One of Andrew's cousins and his wife somewhat recently got a dog so they brought her over to meet the family.  We all got a good laugh watching the dog herd the children into a group. 

Obie loves herding children

It used to be that my husband's grandmother made those cookies made from Ritz crackers and peanut butter and dipped in chocolate, but she hasn't been in good enough health to do that for a few years.  So when I joined the family, Andrew and I took that job.  The first year we made them, I melted the chocolate almond bark in a pan, but there was scorching and while the task was still accomplished, it was not great.  I was then given a double boiler as a gift and those make the whole process much better. 

Melting chocolate almond bark in the double boiler

Oh, these cookies are so yummy

Let's see...we've covered festivities, family, and food.  My failure was in my fun sewing attempt.  I love the Anna Maria Horner Feather Pattern, so I thought I'd give it a try, especially since it's a free pattern.  I'm not sure if the directions are not super clear or if I didn't read well or what, but I messed up.  And this was even after reading another blogger mention how she made these and messed up.  I should have learned from her error. 

sewing strips together and cutting them up

This is not correct.  The diagonal stripes on the left side of the feather are supposed to angle upward toward the middle.

Oh, well.  I'll just have to sew some more strips together and do those pieces the right way and I'll have more feathers.  No problem.  I was thinking of making a table runner or pillow, but now with as many feathers as I'll end up with, I might make a whole baby quilt or something.  I dunno.  Any suggestions? 

Sewing like the wind!

Okay, if you haven't seen The Three Amigos you might not get the title of this post, but I'm sewing like crazy around here to get stuff done.  Last night I finished a bajillion pairs of pajama pants.  I forget how many zeros there are in a bajillion.  Anyway, pajama pants!

A bajillion pairs of pajama pants

Although sewing all those pants was not my favorite sewing ever, they did turn out cute and some will be Christmas gifts for nieces and nephews.  Today I plan to sew some more, but I think I'll do something fun.  Maybe not something assembly line mass production.  We'll see. 

With Thanksgiving

Since Thanksgiving is this week, I thought I'd share a couple verses that relate to the holiday. 

Philippians 4:6 - Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 

I remember memorizing these verses and joking with my mom about where to stop in this sentence.  We would say "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything!"  I'm not usually an anxious person, but I do need to remember that my first reaction to anything that could cause worry should not be worry, but prayer. 

I find the inclusion of "with thanksgiving" interesting in this verse.  It changes the whole attitude of the prayer.  If you are praying with thanksgiving it means that you have thought about what you have been given that is good.  You are reminded that God has cared for you before.  You are alive, you have had enough to eat, you have a relationship with God in Christ!  If he has taken care of so many things in the past, we can easily come to him in prayer with concerns now, knowing that He is able to care for them now.  That may not mean that He will necessarily answer your prayers the way you want Him to, but the answer will be what He knows is best.  You will be able to look back on the answer to that prayer in thankfulness, too. 

We shouldn't come to God with whiny complaints about what we don't have.  Not that it's bad to ask God for things.  He loves to give what is good to His children.  But the gimme attitude just shows that it's not God we love, but stuff or comfort or something else.  A thankful heart shows that we recognize that everything we are given is a gift from a loving God and that anything else we are given in addition is a mercy and we will respond with thankfulness again.