Angels for angels

I did not realize how long it had been  since I posted here.   Life has been busy!  A  few weeks ago, I went to an estate sale, I bought a huge bag of beads.  My  granddaughters love beads, when I opened the bag and got to look at everything, there were these beaded angel kits.  There were no instructions but I contacted the manufactorer  Darice online and they kindly sent me instructions. I made these for granddaughters,  I need to get beads for one more and each of them will have one. I have to find something to make for the grandson now!

Tomorrow night I will have all six grandchildren spend the night.  I am looking forward to having them all here,  I  enjoy them so much and don't get to have them as often as I would like too. My husband says I am a brave woman to have them all at the same time!  Wish me luck and hold your grandbabies close,  they grow up too fast.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

After a rough October, we went into November sad at our loss.  But with prayer and support from friends and church family we celebrated Thanksgiving with family! We are blessed beyond measure and so thankful for our blessings.

Now, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.  We are having Christmas with kids and grands on the 16th so I have started decorating!

The tree is up!

                                       
                                                 My favorite Christmas candy.

                                                     We received our first Christmas card!

Dining room table.

                                                      Salt and peppers collection.

                                                             The reason for the Season!

                                                                   Good Tidings!

Hoping you all have a wonderful Christmas season.  God Bless!

A Season for everything

Ecclesiastes 3King James Version (KJV)

3 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?

10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.

13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.

14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

We experienced a sad season of life very recently, a wonderful couple that we go to church with and their daughter were in a terrible car accident. They were just driving home from a band event at school and a car crossed the center line and hit them head on.  The dad was killed instantly and the mom died  later in surgery. The 14 year old daughter was airlifted to a Childrens hospital with broken legs that required surgery.  We were all in shock and cried out "Why?" to the Lord. I think that is normal in these circumstances, we are human and we just don't always understand God's plan.  But after much prayer, I realized that his plans are always better than mine whether I understand them or not. These lovely people were a beautiful testimony in the way they lived their lives. They didn't just talk the Christian talk, they walked the walk and we know that they are with their heavenly Father now. The daughter will be okay, there will be hard days ahead, but she has a lot of wonderful people around her for love and support.

I hesitated to write this, it's still raw and fresh for me. But it brought home the lesson that we are not promised tomorrow and our lives as we know them could end in an instant.  So, hold your loved ones close to you, always tell them you love them!  Also, I am not going to preach at anyone but I do want to say that if you do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ that you need to ask someone about him. I do not know how people can survive tragedies like these without him.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, shall not perish but have everlasting life."  John 3:16

Fall is on its way!

It was 90 degrees here in Arkansas today but I can see those small changes, a slight breeze and leaves are starting to change. Fall is on its way and I am ready for it!

Perry's mom gave us some purple hull peas, so we spent part of the day shelling them. It was a nice time  to sit together and shell peas.

My fall leaves tablecloth went on the table today and my wreath is on my door!

I made a couple of dishtowels last week. I didn't pay attention and my pattern went the wrong way on one of my towels, so I improvised and made a small pillow, it says "Happiness is a kitchen full of family"  I agree, I love having a kitchen full of family around me.  

Sewing and Canning

I have three granddaughters with Easy Bake ovens. Alexa reminded me that her apron didn't fit anymore so she needed a new one. I forgot it had been about 7 years since I had made them aprons they were little girls then!  My oldest granddaughter has outgrown an apron (very sad for this nana) and the youngest one's apron still fits.  So here are the three new aprons.

I also made a  pretty  tie on for the back of my chair in my sewing room.

I have been busy lately canning! I have quite a few pears on our tree, so I made pear preserves and also did some apple jelly. I like to can veggies but I really enjoy canning fruit jellies and preserves!

I hope to make more blog updates but I get so busy I forget. The grandkids keep us busy, we had two birthday parties this Summer and they start over again in January.  But they are growing up so fast I don't want to complain about any time spent with them.

I am looking forward to Fall it's my favorite time of the year. We hope to go camping in October, we enjoy fall camping on the lake. It's so pretty outside and so nice to sit around a fire at night and roast marshmallows.

Christmas!

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."  
Luke 2:11


Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year! Hope you get spend some time
with your family during this special season.  May God bless you all!

 Below are my six of my greatest blessings. We had Christmas at our house early this year.  These little people made it so much fun!  From left to right, Ethan, Isabella, Emily, Alexa, Calleigh and Caitlyn.  God has blessed us with beautiful grandchildren!

Decorating

We are going to have Christmas with the children and grandchildren on the 10th, so I started decorating Saturday.  I love having them all together here, so much fun. We are blessed with a wonderful family!  I hope everyone has a wonderful time with all the family events planned through Chirstmas. We have several school programs and church programs to attend, I love this time of year!

My mantel, I found the large square wreath at a thrift shop for $5. I knew it
would be perfect over the mantel.

Our tree with my new treeskirt.

I bought a new Christmas tree this year and decided I needed a new tree skirt.  My husband suggested I use my stash of Christmas material I bought after Christmas last year to make one.  I think it turned out pretty good!  I like to keep my holidays separated, so I won't put up my tree till after Thanksgiving.  However, we are having Christmas with our children and grand children at our house on December 10th.  So the tree will go up pretty quickly after Thanksgiving.  It's hard to get everyone together on the same day once they grow up and have families and family obligations to both sides on holidays.  I always try to be understanding, because I know how hard it is to juggle all the get togethers!

Making gifts!

 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.  She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.  She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.

Proverbs 31:10-31

It is finally feeling like Fall! So I have started decorating, here is the front door.

I have also started on my gifts for Christmas, I usually give the adult children money, but I also like

to include a little handmade item. I have already done some dishtowels and plan on doing some potholders to go with them.  I also found some new linen napkins at the thrift store, a stack of about 40 of them and I bought them to embroider for gifts.  I have also been hand embroidering pillowcases.

These are some of the dishtowels I have been decorating with machine embroidery and also a stack of napkins that I monogramed with a Christmas alphabet.

This is one of the pillowcases I am hand embroidering. I love to do hand embroidery while I am watching television at night. I also embroider when my husband is watching a game, I  get bored! 

My oldest granddaughter found some dragon scale fingerless gloves that she would like me to make for her. I have found a pattern and I think I am going to give them a try, please wish me luck! 

"He who gathers crops in Summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son."  Proverbs 10:5


I  am off this week recovering from surgery.  I am doing well and I am thankful to the Lord for an easy recovery period and for my family who have been so good at taking care of me!  I went to the garden and picked some okra and a few tomatoes this morning.  It is extremely hot here in Arkansas and the poor garden is tapering off now.

Yesterday, I made two loaves of Zucchini bread from our zucchini, the recipe is from Paula Deen and it makes two loaves. It's delicious.

Lastly, I wanted to show off my cute little stepladder chair that I ordered from Amazon last week. I am not a very tall person and always need to get up in a chair for my top cabinets, my husband found this and it reminded me of my childhood when a dear neighbor had one in her kitchen and I loved to sit in it!

I hope everyone has a wonderful blessed day!  I am going to try to get  some sewing done now.

Days of Summer - canning time!

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. 
Genesis 8:22



We have a garden every year, my husband puts a lot of work into it.
The good Lord blessed us with a lot of rain early in the Spring and the heat did not turn on until a few weeks ago, so our beans have done great! I  help with picking , shelling and then canning the fruit of his labor.  We have been busy the last couple weeks canning green beans and pinto beans. I also made apple jelly and orange marmalade. It's nice to open a jar of home canned veggies in the middle of Winter and enjoy them!

Pinto beans

Apple jelly and orange marmalade

Fried zuchinni

                                                    Green Beans

It is very hot outside, so I worked inside today!  I put up 10 half pints of apple jelly!

And I finished a pillow for my youngest granddaughter's birthday in August.  She loves pillows, and she is a little girl with a big attitude!  I thought this saying on her pillow was perfect!

Our garden so far has been good this year.  The Lord blessed us with enough green beans to can 60 quarts. The squash and zucchini are coming off the vine now.  We have pinto beans just waiting to fill out and be picked and peas blooming. The tomatoes are coming along and we've picked some peppers too. It's a busy time of the year!

Our chickens have started laying!  We are really enjoying our fresh eggs.  The grandkids are all just enjoying the chickens.  It's beautiful here in Arkansas and I am counting my blessings the Lord has given me!

My husband and I have been working on this chicken coop most of the weekend!  Our chickens will arrive in October.  We are looking forward to our new hobby!

Back to school for grand blessings!

These are some of the shirts I embroidered for my granddaughters.  I found the patterns for the cutie shirts on Etsy.  The CMS shirt is for the oldest girl, she is going to the 6th grade and has decided she was too old for a cutie shirt!  They grow up way too fast, our youngest grandchild will start kindergarten next year.

Aprons!

I have been off a few days and today I made myself an apron!  I even monogramed it. Back to work tomorrow, but at least the weekend will be right around the corner.

Gardening time again!

It's been a long while since I have posted! No real excuse just busy, busy, busy!  But I am off today and took some time to walk in the yard and garden. My husband has really worked hard on this garden and it shows, despite all of the rain we still have some beautiful plants. Below are some pictures!

                                            The swing is one of my favorite spots to sit!

                                                                 Purple hull peas!

Tomatoes, my favorite crop!

                           
                                                            Butter beans

                                                                Baby squash

 
                                                         A turtle friend in the zucchini

 
                                                                 zucchini

Hoping everyone had a very Merry Christmas and wishes for a wonderful New Year!   We went with non traditional Christmas dinner,  fried chicken and all the fixin's!   My husband told me to use paper plates for easy clean up, but I only get to use the Christmas dishes once a year and I enjoy seeing them on the table!

Praising God!

I am praising God for being in this car with me on Monday!   The roads were wet and I slid off the road into some trees.  I am bunged up and have asmall neck fracture (just have to wear a soft brace) but I am still here!

Pears keep on coming!

We still have pears on our tree!  So I found a recipe for pear butter that uses the crockpot, it is delicious and the whole house smelled wondeful  all day.   God has really blessed us this year with the garden and pears!