Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

A day of celebration and gifts for the young and old!

This Mother's Day I've been busy with a new hobby called Holiday Gift Consultant for the Young and I'm having so much fun.

Let me tell you how it started. Last Wednesday a 10 year old boy in my Sunday school class approached me with the following question:

"Remember how you helped me pick a gift for
my mom last year at Mother's day?

Well, I was hoping you could help me again."

I was blessed to be able to say "Yes," and we worked together on the perfect gift idea. He told me his budget was $6.00 (after I explained what a budget was :-0) and I let him know what could be done for that amount.

I told the young man that recently I had gone to the garden center and had bought some pansies and dusty millers (4 for $1.49). I could purchase a nice planter at the dollar store and with everything together, make a sweet dish garden for under $6.00.

I also reminded him that he would need to provide the gift card but that I would arrange to have the planter gift wrapped. He happily agreed. We finalized our delivery arrangements and then I went to work.


When I asked the young man this morning how he liked the gift I created he told me that it was even better than he had imagined it would be! Whew!

Who knew that a little gardening hobby could help foster a young boy's love for his mother?

Have a sweet Mother's Day!

Jessica

Our new "Young Ladies Class"

A few Saturday mornings ago there was a flurry of activity at my house. I hosted our church's first "Young Ladies Class" for girls ages 7 - 14. It's a time once a month that the girls can get together either at my home or the church with an emphasis on learning homemaking and personal growth skills. (Really I just get to have lots of fun while we dream up fun activities!) I had announced the event a few weeks ahead of time and the excitement had been building. As the girls arrived I could see the anticipation in their faces. "What would we do?" "Would it be fun?" "Would I fit in?"

After everyone arrived I started by explaining how that the days' activities would centre around kitchen basics, a Bible lesson and craft. We opened the Bible and I taught how that just like following a good recipe, the Bible is a recipe for our lives. If we listen and follow God's plan for us then our lives will turn out right. But if we choose not to follow God's word then we can expect our lives to flop (like a bad cake recipe!)

Then we headed to the kitchen where I divided the group into three teams. Team 1 was to mix up the cookie dough. Team 2 was to spoon the dough onto the cookie sheets and Team 3 would be doing the clean up.

The team donned aprons and got to work. Since it would be a few minutes until the dough was mixed up, I arranged for Teams 2 and 3 to participate in the craft.

I provided them with red postcards, foam flowers, a pre-printed scripture and they could decorate them however the chose.



I was amazed once again at the creativity of young minds. Some wanted to be just like someone else's and some wanted to be totally different!


The cookies we made are called Children's Favourites. I didn't have a chance to photograph the cookies because we were so anxious to taste the fruit of our labours. However, here's a picture from a previous post....

1 cup margarine
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl beat together margarine, peanut butter, white and brown sugars. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg. Add vanilla and mix well.

In a separate bowl combine oatmeal, flour, and baking soda. Gradually add to butter mixture and beat well. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes (just till very slightly browned being careful not to overbake them.) Cool on pans or wire racks. Makes 5+ dozen

And finally, just before we said goodbye I asked the group if any of them knew what a "Door Prize" was and I was returned with blank stares. With glee I explained how that when girls get together and have a party the hostess usually offers a door prize to one special guest. WOW! Were they excited now. I had carefully selected an inexpensive gift to give away and now was my chance. We wrote their names on pieces of paper and while we sang a little chorus we shook them up. Then I picked the winner and there were shouts of surprise! Yeah for Alysha!

Then the questions came..."Would we be having a door prize at every meeting?" "What happens if the same person is selected again?" and so on.

So as we waited for the moms to arrive, we used my camera to snap some funny candids. A great time was had by all and we're all looking forward to next month's activity. Later, as I thought about the day, I was blessed to be able to share things that took me years to learn as an adult. The potential in these young ladies is unending and helping them to develop their talents is an awesome experience.

Blessings to you,
Jessica

Show & Tell Friday

Welcome again to my Show & Tell this week. I'm going to share my latest project which I've completed. But first I have to tell you that some time ago I was asked the question, "How do you eat an elephant?" Knowing that there must be some trick answer seeing the question came from one of my Sunday School kids, I easily gave up on trying to figure it out. "One bite at a time!" came the excited answer with giggles. And don't you know this week's Show & Tell reminds me of that silly joke because it was with one stitch at a time that I completed the counted crosstitch that you see pictured below.


I honestly can't remember when I started this project but I do know that when I saw the pattern I fell in love with the colors and messaging. For years I would bring out my special teddy bear bag with its box of thread, needles and aida cloth and would stitch away. Sometimes having to remove a section because of haste or confusion but in the end everything blended together perfectly.

As you can see from the date I actually finished the needlework 3 years ago but I tucked it away for some unknown reason and didn't get it framed. Well, a few weeks ago I came across it again and have been plotting the framing since then.

The stitching is 10 x 12 inches and the frame is 16 x 20. There is glass in the frame but I removed it for the photo so as to avoid any glare.

Here is a close up of the stitching.....



What a satisfying feeling to have this project finally completed. I hope that if you've got something on the go that you've maybe been avoiding that you'll pick it back up remembering that you can finish it, "One bite at a time."

Thanks for visiting my show and tell this week and please stop by Kelli's to see what others are sharing this week.

Cheers,

Jessica

Craft Day

This afternoon I brought out my portable sewing machine and whipped up a some gift bags with some fancy Christmas material.

These gifts are going to some very special people so I'm mailing them early to make sure they arrive in time for the holidays!

First I started with an assortment of these fun cookie cutters! My friend N. and I went shopping earlier this week and we picked out six sets of them.


We looked and looked for something to wrap them in and that's when I decided to make my own gift bag. So I stopped by the bargain bin at the fabric department and picked up a metre of this beautiful see-through Christmas material. Then I picked up a roll of gold ribbon to use as a drawstring.

So today I cut out the material using my rotary cutter and mat. ( If you've never had the chance to cut with one of these gadgets, you're really missing out. I use mine every time I sew.)


Then I sewed up the edges and finished the top edge making a pocket for the drawstring. So simple.


And since I wanted to keep the cookie cutters from getting all bent and out of shape while in transit, I wrapped them in some holiday tissue paper.




They slid right into the bag as if it was made for them..hee hee.

And Tada!! This was a simple project which took about an hour and a half to do 6 of them.



I hope you enjoyed your visit and I'd love to know what kind of Christmas crafts you might have in mind for this year.

Cheers,
Jessica

Show & Tell Friday - Quilting

Won't you join us for a little fun? We're having Show & Tell hosted by Kelli at There's No Place Like Home.

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About 5 years ago I hosted a "Quilt In A Weekend" event at my house.

Seven ladies from our church got together for a Friday and Saturday and cut, ironed and sewed to our hearts content.

Our instructor was a wonderful lady who lived about 4 hours away. She brought a team of 3 other ladies with her which worked out perfect because then there were more than one pair of teaching eyes and hands.

For preparation, the designs and materials were all selected beforehand.

Our first step was to practice our pattern on scrap material while getting used to the techniques that would be used on the final product.



As you can see from the picture below, I moved all my living room and dining room furniture to the sides and we set up 4 super large tables for our work surface.


We worked for about 5 hours on Friday and 12 hours (8-9) Saturday. We only stopped for our pot luck lunch (and of course, a coffee break or two). Sure it was a lot crammed into a short period of time, but it was well worth it. Our project was finished!

Here's the final outcome.......a quilt that fits on my queen size bed. It was a great experience, great fellowship and great fun.



As an aside, here's a beautiful quilt that I received as a gift for Christmas one year that was stitched by one of the ladies who helped at our weekend session. I can certainly appreciate all the detail that goes into a project like this.


What about you, what type of projects have you done in a class or group setting? I'd love to hear your ideas so I can plan something like this again.

Jessica

Summer Kitchen Makeover

Ever since Christmas when I took down my artificial evergreen around the top of my kitchen cabinets, I've been looking for something to replace it.

This past week I noticed that Michael's had their greenery on sale (50% off) so I went over to see what they had in stock. I'd always had in the back of my mind that I wanted to add some kind of sunflower decor to my kitchen but just hadn't come across the right thing. Well this time I found some perfect greenery and sunflowers that I really liked.

Here are some before and after pictures..........

(Plain Jane with an ugly overhead light)

(now the light is camouflaged)

When I went to thank my husband for funding my little project - he let me know that he appreciated how nice the redecorating turned out (especially since it didn't involve rearranging the inside of the cupboards!) Now there's even more reason to enjoy spending time in the kitchen!!

Blessings,
Jessica

Show & Tell Friday

I'm participating in Kelli's Weekly Show & Tell.

Why don't you come on over to There's No Place Like Home to join in the fun!

This week I'd like to show you the Explosion Style Mini Memory Book that I made last summer. I had a good friend walk me through the steps to make it and it was a really fun activity. This memory book was patterned after the instructions by Sandi Genovese. You can read them here.


A couple of years ago my sister in law gave me a memory book like this one and I was really intrigued by it. It starts out looking like a ribbon tied square but when you untie the ribbon the book folds out with lots of little nooks and crannies for posting sweet memory keepsakes or photos!

I chose daisies for the outside because I knew I would be giving it as a gift to my friend Daisy. She and her husband had their first baby and they needed somewhere to put all those pictures of the new little darling. Everyone knows that the first baby gets the most photo time!

On the inside I chose coordinating yellow and purple paper for a fun background. There were places on both sides for pictures! Lots of room for cute baby photos.


I really want to know if anyone else has made these neat keepsakes and how did you use it?

As always, please leave me a comment and let me know you stopped by.

Blessings,
Jessica

Show & Tell Friday

It's Show & Tell Friday! Come on over to Kelli's to see all the precious treasures.

Every month I lead a women's group mostly made up of ladies from our church. For the past six months or so we've been incorporating an activity what we call, "Simply Having Fun" into our meetings. This is a time where we have a demonstration of some type of skill. As everyone is always looking for ways to improve their home menus the focus has been on different recipes. Here are some that have been featured....(click on the image to see it full size).

(UPDATE: In the interest of integrity I wish to give full credit to the designer of these recipe cards. I realized after posting them that the owner requested that they not be shared electronically. You can find these and other great designs at The Graphic Garden.)













However, last evening, the group decided they would love to hone a few basic homemaking skills so they came up with a list of activities they want to have demonstrated.

We started this year off with basic knitting. Since we have a "no shoe" policy in our church's toddler nursery, one of the ladies had knitted about a dozen pairs of slippers a few years ago. She made various sizes for the children in different colours. And she even made a few pair for the nursery workers too!

So, last night Linda graciously shared her expertise with the group and we all learned to make a simple coaster. The dark green one was Linda's sample. It took us about 45 minutes to knit these little treasures.



As you can see, one of these is not like the others! That's because of the size of the knitting needles C. was working with. So, afterwards, while enjoying wonderful treats with coffee & tea, it was decided that our littlest coaster would serve better as a fork or spoon rest!



A fun time was had by all and probably the best part was the friendly chatter that took place during the actual knitting. It reminded me of the knitting or sewing circles that I've read about in times past and we're looking forward to doing it again soon.

Thanks for visiting my Show & Tell! I'd love to hear what you think. Maybe you have some other good ideas for homemaking demonstrations.

Blessings,
Jessica

Simple Christmas Curtains

For several months now I've been looking out my kitchen window that didn't have any window dressing at all. The curtains that used to be hanging there were worn and falling apart and to be honest, the style didn't really match the rest of the kitchen.

Like most people, it just wasn't in the budget to go buy new ones so I dug through my stash of material. I found some really cute Christmas bears that were left over from when I made aprons for my great-nieces a couple of years ago.

So, I began to measure and decided that they would be wide enough to just cover the window. I used my rotary cutter to make the panels. I just love how easy the cutter is to use compared to scissors!! Zip, zip and it's cut.

See the teddy bears!!! They're everwhere!

Then I pressed the edges to the proper seam allowances.
Ten lines of sewing and *poof*, they were done. All in all it took me just an hour and now I have a little touch of Christmas in my kitchen.


Here they are pulled closed for privacy.

I added a couple of tie backs for the daytime. Here they are pulled open so I can see all the snow in the daytime and watch Gus the Big White Dog play in the snow in the backyard. Believe me, we have lots! (2 feet +)

It was awfully nice of you to take the time to read about my little project. Now I just hope I'll be able to get some "new" curtains in the new year.